← Old Posts

March is Hearing Loss Prevention Safety month.

March 23, 2020

Occupational hearing loss is the most common work-related injury in the United States.  Approximately 22 million U.S. workers exposed to hazardous noise levels at work, and an additional 9 million exposed to ototoxic chemicals.

An estimated $242 million is spent annually on worker’s compensation for hearing loss disability.

NIOSH recommends that all worker exposures to noise should be controlled below a level equivalent to 85 dBA for eight hours to minimize occupational noise induced hearing loss. NIOSH also recommends a 3 dBA exchange rate so that every increase by 3 dBA doubles the amount of the noise and halves the recommended amount of exposure time.

  • Four million workers go to work each day in damaging noise. Ten million people in the U.S. have a noise-related hearing loss. Twenty-two million workers are exposed to potentially damaging noise each year.
  • In 2008, approximately 2 million U.S. workers were exposed to noise levels at work that put them at risk of hearing loss.
  • In 2007, approximately 23,000 cases were reported of occupational hearing loss that was great enough to cause hearing impairment.
    Reported cases of hearing loss accounted for 14% of occupational illness in 2007.
  • In 2007, approximately 82% of the cases involving occupational hearing loss were reported among workers in the manufacturing sector.

Over the past few decades, much has been learned about the implementation of hearing loss prevention programs. The eight components of a successful hearing loss prevention program include:

1) noise exposure monitoring,

2) engineering and administrative controls,

3) audiometric evaluation,

4) use of hearing protection devices,

5) education and motivation

6) record keeping,

7) program evaluation, and

8) program audit.

ISO 9001

Don’t forget to do your part to promote awareness about Hearing Loss Prevention Safety Month!

SOURCE

Acknowledgments to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/noise/

EHS Today – Health and Safety, Sustainability and Corporate Excellence Webinar!

January 6, 2020

EHS

Corporate Success: Connecting Health & Safety, Sustainability and Operational Excellence

FREE WEBINAR

Tuesday, January 21st

Occupational safety and health (OHS) professionals working in organizations are integral to sustainability and operational excellence. In the past, corporate sustainability efforts focused on environmental issues, such as resource usage and emissions reductions.

Attention has turned to other aspects of sustainability, including occupational safety, health and wellness.

Investors break down sustainability into environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, with an expectation companies will report on the measurement and resulting outcome of managing these issues. The safety and health of workers – the human capital – is part of the social dimension of sustainability.

 

REGISTER NOW! 

Watch those ears!

Watch those ears at yesterdays game

You won’t believe how loud it gets in the Dome!

The Super Dome is always loud and proud.  But can all that cheering and screaming be hazardous to your hearing?

“Last year for Rams game we were at 128 decibels!” Says Jamie Pierre with Ochsner.  She tells WWL-TV that’s like standing under a fighter plane taking off from an aircraft carrier.

Can being exposed to all that cheering in the Dome really have an impact?

“Your risk to experiencing hearing loss as a spectator is expected to be little less than someone working an eight hour shift at a noisy factory,” Pierre says. So yes, the Dome’s roaring crowds can have effects on your hearing:

“If you do have a hearing loss, then what will is the good hearing that you might have left, or even any hearing you may have, you’re at risk for making that hearing loss worse.”

Pierre cautions fans to take care against damaging their hearing.  She says wear ear plugs:

“They’re very small, they’re discreet and they’re very good for you.”

Pierre also emphasizes protecting children’s hearing by covering their ears with earmuffs.

It was 2013 when the decibel level at the Dome came just short of the loudest crowd roar on record.

So you heard it hear folks! Protect those ears.. 

Source

https://wwl.radio.com/articles/watch-those-ears-at-todays-game

Holiday Safe Listening: Noisy Technology, Toys and Places

December 17, 2019

Holiday Safe Listening: Noisy Technology, Toys and Places

Between new technology gifts (used with earbuds or headphones), noisy toys, and loud holiday parties and concerts, the holiday season brings welcome revelry but also a lot of noise.

Read on for more information—and download and share these resources with your family, friends, and clients/patients to help encourage the public to protect their hearing.

Safe Listening Tips: Holiday Gifts and Hearing Protection

Buying a tech gift for your child this holiday season? More than 1 billion young people worldwide are at risk of developing hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices from noisy technology and leisure settings. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association offers three easy tips to teach safe listening and help kids protect their hearing.

SPREAD THE NEWS! October Is National Protect Your Hearing Month

October 3, 2019

During this year’s National Protect Your Hearing Month—observed each October—learn how to protect yourself and your loved ones from noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), and help Noisy Planet spread the word to others.hearing awareness

NIHL occurs when noise damages tiny hair cells within the cochlea—the small, snail-shaped organ for hearing in the inner ear. When hair cells are damaged, they can’t send information about sound to the brain. Since people can’t grow new hair cells to replace damaged ones, hearing loss from noise is permanent. (Watch Noisy Planet’s Journey of Sound video for a detailed explanation of how we hear.)

People of all ages can develop NIHL. A 2017 study shows that about 13 to 18 percent of teens (ages 12 to 19) have signs of possible NIHL. Hearing loss from noise may not be obvious at first, but symptoms can build over time. NIHL can make it difficult to communicate with others and to appreciate the sounds of everyday living, such as chirping birds or a crackling fire.

Luckily, NIHL is preventable. Noisy Planet strives to help children and teens make healthy hearing a habit early on, so that they can avoid NIHL for a lifetime. You can help prevent hearing loss from noise by following these simple lifestyle changes:

Turn down the volume.

  • Keep the volume low on smartphones, tablets, computers, and TVs, and set maximum volume levels on devices used by children and teens. Sounds below 70 A-weighted decibels (dBA) are generally considered safe. Sounds at or above 85 dBA are more likely to put you at risk for NIHL, especially if they last a long time or are repeated. You can measure the decibel levels of devices and environments with a free app from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Move away from the noise.

  • To reduce sound intensity and the impact of noise on your ears, increase the distance between you and the sound. Think of this simple step when you are near fireworks or concert speakers.

Wear hearing protectors, earplugs, custom ear plugs or earmuffs.

  • Sometimes you can’t easily escape the sound, whether you’re at a movie theater, a concert, a sporting event, or in a noisy work environment. Earplugs or protective earmuffs can help. If you’re a parent, carry hearing protectors for your little ones and be a hearing health role model by wearing them yourself. If you’re caught without hearing protectors, you can cover your ears with your hands.
custom-plugs-vs-disposables

Help spread the message about healthy hearing – Read more

Source – https://www.noisyplanet.nidcd.nih.gov/have-you-heard/october-national-protect-your-hearing-month

Why We Don’t Turn Down The Volume When The Music Gets Louder

August 27, 2019

In the 1984 film “This Is Spinal Tap”, Nigel Tufnel (played by Christopher Guest) famously turns him amplifiers all the way up to eleven. His attitude to music is that the volume is a big part of the sound, and louder is better.

Unfortunately for Nigel, listening to loud music for a long time can cause irreparable hearing loss. The solution seems simple: Just turn the volume down a bit. In reality, it’s not so straightforward. Two recent studies show how different cultural and technical practices indirectly affect how loud the music is that we’re listening to.

Music is only getting louder?

First, music itself has been gradually getting louder. Researchers in Canada studied a large collection of songs from the past nine decades to see how much the sound intensity of the music itself has changed per decade. They found  that a track by one of today’s artists is intrinsically louder than eighties hits, regardless of whether you’ve turned up the volume to eleven.

This increase doesn’t have anything to do with a change in music style over the years, but with the way that the tracks are recorded and edited. According to the study, audio engineering has changed over time, and as a result there are now fewer “quiet spots” within tracks. That means that the overall sound intensity of current music is a bit higher than that of older music. So yes, music has gotten louder over the years.

But this alone does not mean that these tracks are more likely to cause hearing damage. That also depends on how the listener controls the volume on their end. Ideally, you should probably turn the sound down just a bit when you’re listening to a louder song. Whether you do that, though, again depends on a lot of factors, as another recent study showed.

An international group of researchers wondered how young adults from different countries thought about loud music. They surveyed people between the ages of 18 and 25 in cities in the USA, UK, Portugal, India and Iran and asked them what came to mind when they thought about the concepts of “music” or “loud music”.

There found a lot of similarities between the different countries. Most people had generally positive associations with music, and associated it with memories, friends or aspects of a good quality of life. But when it came to “loud music”, negative associations started to take over.

Hearing Problems association with Loud Music

Hearing problems was one of these negative connotations that people associated with loud music, but it came up more often in conversations with people from the UK, USA and Portugal than with the study participants in India or Iran. That doesn’t mean that people in those last two countries don’t know that loud music causes hearing loss – it just showed that it wasn’t the first thing on their mind when they thought about loud music.

Being aware of the link between loud music and hearing loss is in itself not enough to make the decision to protect your ears, but it’s a good start. An earlier study from researchers in Sweden and the USA found that young adults in Sweden were more likely to use ear plugs at a concert than Americans, even though both groups were aware of the dangers. They thought that in that case, the difference was that ear plugs had become more socially accepted in Sweden, thanks to a series of awareness campaigns. Not to mention that more and more musicians are seen wearing customized hearing protection (dB Blockers) to protect their hearing from loud piercing noises If everyone uses ear plugs, it’s less embarrassing to be wearing them.

music

So even if you already knew about the dangers of loud music, it’s worth repeating the message. And now that you also know that music is gradually getting inherently louder, maybe it’s time to turn the dial back down from eleven.

SOURCE

https://www.forbes.com/sites/evaamsen/2019/07/30/why-we-dont-turn-down-the-volume-when-the-music-gets-louder/#296d35e632e4

A Link Between Hearing Loss and Dementia

July 9, 2019

by Stephen Yontz, President of FitHearing, LLC

Hearing loss affects over 48 million people in the U.S., according to the Hearing Loss Association of America, and puts them at greater risk for cognitive decline and even dementia. The age group affected by the greatest amount of hearing loss are those between 60-69 years old.

Dr. Frank Lin, an otologist and epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore says, “The general perception is that hearing loss is a relatively inconsequential part of aging.” However, recent findings suggest that it may play a much more important role in brain health than we’ve previously thought, he added.

There have been recent, well-regarded studies that support the possibility that treating hearing loss more aggressively could aid in the prevention of cognitive decline and dementia. Dr. Lin has authored several recent studies that aim to link hearing and cognitive problems that range from mild impairment all the way to dementia. He and other researchers have theories about an explanation for the link between the two, though they are not sure which will prove true.

The Search for Connections

A 2013 study led by Dr. Lin and his colleagues tracked the overall cognitive abilities of memory, concentration, and planning skills of almost 2,000 people with an average age of 77. Over six years, participants who began the study with hearing loss severe enough that it interfered with their conversation were 24 percent more likely to see their cognitive abilities diminish than those with normal hearing. The researchers found that hearing loss seemed to hasten age-related cognitive decline.

In 2011, Dr. Lin and his colleagues studied the cognitive health of 639 mentally sharp people in a study that focused on dementia. The volunteers’ mental abilities were tested regularly, with many participating for about 12 years and others for as many as 18 years.

The notable results showed that the worse the initial hearing loss was, the more likely the participant was to develop dementia. When compared to people with normal hearing, the risk was three times as great for those with moderate hearing loss.

Another study offers more hope still. Led by Isabelle Mosnier of Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris in France and published in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, March 2015, the study consisted of a group of 94 people ages 65-85 with profound deafness in at least one ear. Each of the participants received a cochlear implant followed by auditory rehabilitation twice a week. Those with the lowest cognitive scores showed remarkable improvement one year after implantation.

While the study had shortcomings, “the improvement in cognition was huge — about double that seen with any of the current [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] FDA drugs for treating Alzheimer’s,” says P. Murali Doraiswamy, M.D. The professor of psychiatry and medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and coauthor of The Alzheimer’s Action Plan also theorizes that the findings about hearing loss affecting cognitive function could also apply to other senses, like vision, smell, and touch. “Studies have shown that uncorrected vision problems raise the risk for dementia,” he says.

 

Possible Connections Between Hearing Loss and Dementia

Some doctors hesitate to acknowledge a connection between disabling hearing loss and cognitive decline and dementia, but more and more healthcare professionals are accepting the possibility. “Every doctor knows that hearing loss can result in cognitive problems, but they still don’t focus on it as a priority when they evaluate someone with suspected dementia — which is a big missed opportunity,” Doraiswamy says.

“The benefits of correcting hearing loss on cognition are twice as large as the benefits from any cognitive-enhancing drugs now on the market. It should be the first thing we focus on.”

Dr. Lin suggests four possible ways hearing loss might contribute to cognitive decline and dementia. The first is a condition like high blood pressure: a common physiological pathway that contributes to both, but he and other researchers used statistical methods to take into account the factors known to be associated with both conditions, so Lin does not have much confidence in this explanation.

The second possibility has to with “cognitive load,” or the effort of constantly straining to understand puts stress on the brain. Intuitively, this connection makes sense.

Arthur Wingfield, professor of neuroscience at Brandeis University, explains, “If you put in a lot of effort just to comprehend what you’re hearing, it takes resources that would otherwise be available for encoding [what you hear] in memory.” His lab’s research has documented this effect on a short-term basis. He questions if whether years of drawing resources away from brain functions such as working memory will eventually reduce the brain’s resilience.

A third possibility, proposed by both Wingfield and Lin, suggests that hearing loss might affect brain structure in a way that contributes to cognitive problems. It has been found that older adults with hearing loss have less gray matter in the part of the brain that receives and processes sounds, according to Wingfield. Certain brain cells shrink in the absence of constant stimuli. Wingfield then raises the question whether getting clearer speech signals to the brain through use of a modern hearing aid might allow these brain structures to recover their previous size and function.

Lastly, it is likely that social isolation plays a part. Having disabling hearing loss tends to isolate people from their friends and family. The constant struggle to follow conversation often makes hard of hearing people not want to socialize in groups. Social isolation has been infamously recognized as a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia.

 

Seeking Treatment for Hearing Loss

It will certainly take more research in the coming years to pinpoint the factors associated. Can state-of-the-art treatment prevent or delay cognitive decline and dementia, Dr. Lin wonders? He and his team have received funds from the National Institute of Health to plan and develop a definitive clinical trial to monitor a large group of older adults with hearing loss. Half of the participants will receive best-practice hearing treatment and the other half will get what Dr. Lin calls “watchful waiting.” The study will track the participants’ cognitive functions, with results available in 2020 at the earliest.

If you have hearing loss, Dr. Lin believes that one should get the best treatment available, as it can also take into account your mental health and cognitive ability as well. There is much room for improvement, though, as fewer than 15 to 20 percent of those with a clinically significant hearing loss even use hearing aids.

 

About the Author

Stephen Yontz is Founder and President of FitHearing – a new-patient referral service for local practices with a focus on maintaining and valuing professional Audiology and hearing care, while serving an emerging market for price-shopping, informed hearing aid consumers. He is Co-Owner and Director of Operations for an Audiology practice in Nashville, TN, and shortly after assuming this role, he recognized a need for the support of those patients that are not willing to pay the “seemingly” high price for traditional hearing care – those that inevitably seek alternative solutions that do not meet the basic needs of a person suffering from hearing loss.  

He believes that as an industry we are largely falling short in terms of serving our customer with innovative and alternative solutions to meet everyone’s hearing health and financial needs.  FitHearing offers patients the option to purchase the latest and greatest hearing aids at very affordable prices, while integrating the vital care of a local Audiologist or hearing specialist as a means for the patient to receive proper programming, fitting, counseling, and adjustments of his/her hearing aids.  

Stephen is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, with an M.S. Mechanical Engineering and an MBA.  Stephen lives with his wife and two cats in Nashville, TN, where he spends his spare time playing golf, “picking at” his guitar, going to the movies, exercising, and trying new foods.  Truthfully, he spends most of his time thinking of new ways to serve the hearing industry and develop innovative solutions for the future generations of hearing aid users.

Will OSHA Bring The Heat This Summer?

June 17, 2019

 Groups Continue To Press For Heat Standards

 

This past Memorial Day weekend, the southeastern region of the United States experienced a historic heatwave that set all-time records. It’s only going to get hotter, and temperatures throughout the summer can create hazards for workers working both outside and inside. You could be held liable for creating conditions that lead to heat-related injuries and illnesses that may occur during these warm months, so you should take steps now to keep your employees safe and limit your legal exposure.

This past Memorial Day weekend, the southeastern region of the United States experienced a historic heatwave that set all-time records. It’s only going to get hotter, and temperatures throughout the summer can create hazards for workers working both outside and inside. You could be held liable for creating conditions that lead to heat-related injuries and illnesses that may occur during these warm months, so you should take steps now to keep your employees safe and limit your legal exposure.

Current Legal Framework

Although the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) does not have a specific standard that covers working in hot environments, the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires you to provide a place of employment that is “free from recognizable hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious harm to employees.” This includes heat-related hazards. Meanwhile, state OSHA plans in California, Washington, and Minnesota have enacted protective heat standards.

But just because federal OSHA does not have a specific standard in place doesn’t mean it hasn’t spoken on the subject. The agency has issued various Standard Interpretation letters discussing heat stress in workplaces. In a May 2010 Standard Interpretation letter, OSHA provided methods of abating heat stress hazards in workplaces, including permitting workers to drink water or cold liquids (e.g., sports drinks) at liberty, establishing a work/rest regimen so that exposure time to high temperatures and the work rate is decreased, and developing an overall heat stress program.

In August 2014, OSHA again addressed heat-related hazards by announcing that it was once again sponsoring its campaign to “Prevent Heat Illness in Outdoor Workers.” The agency noted that “thousands of workers experience serious heat-related illnesses every year and dozens are killed,” and that it wanted “to make sure that employers and workers know the steps they can take to prevent heat-related illness and death.”

Pressure To Adopt Federal Standards 

Both of these letters, however, were issued under the previous presidential administration, and the current administration has been largely silent in addressing the issue. Some advocacy groups want to change that and have tried to put heat on OSHA to address the matter head on.

Public Citizen, a consumer and health advocacy group, along with 131 other organizations and 89 other individuals (including farmworker advocacy groups and former OSHA directors), sent a letter to the Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Health and Safety on July 17, 2018 petitioning federal OSHA to establish the first federal standards to protect outdoor and indoor workers from occupational exposure to excessive heat. The petitioning parties cite the effects of global warming and climate change as causing the need for the agency to establish protection for workers from the dangers of exposure to excessive heat.

Public Citizen highlights in its petition that California conducted 50 times more inspections resulting in a citation or violation for unsafe heat exposure practices as federal OSHA did nationwide between 2013 and 2017. The group argues that this disparity supports the federal agency implementing a specific, enforceable heat standard rather than simply relying on the General Duty Clause.

Suggested Criteria

Public Citizen argues any proposed standard should be based on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) latest criteria for a recommended standard for occupational exposure to heat and hot environments. The suggested standard includes elements such as:

  • Mandatory Rest Breaks: Mandatory rest breaks away from the hot environment in duration from 15 to 45 minutes per hour at certain heat thresholds.
  • Personal Protective Equipment: When heat exposure levels reach the recommended exposure limit or recommended alert limit, employers must provide PPE to protect workers from heat-related illness. Such PPE may include cooling vests and light-colored, breathable fabric.
  • Shade: Employers must provide access to sufficient areas of shade during the rest breaks.
  • Hydration: Access to water in quantities sufficient to maintain adequate levels of hydration at varying levels of heat, as well as electrolytes if workers are sweating for more than two hours.
  • Heat Acclimatization Plan: Workers beginning work in high-heat environments, or who will be working in hotter conditions than usual, must be gradually acclimatized to the work over a period of at least 7-14 days.

Public Citizen and other groups previously petitioned federal OSHA for a heat standard in 2011. At that point, OSHA formally rejected the petition citing its authority to cite an employer for heat hazards under the General Duty Clause. It appears likely that OSHA maintains that position, as it has not responded to Public Citizen’s July 2018 correspondence. However, Congress – specifically the now Democrat-controlled House – may pressure OSHA to take action when it comes to heat standards.

Despite the lack of a specific standard addressing heat safety, you should follow the NIOSH guidelines when temperatures rise and your employees are exposed to extreme heat.

SOURCES

Fisher Phillips – Nicholas Hulse and Travis W. Vance

Earth Day 2019

April 22, 2019

“In nature, nothing exists alone.”
— Rachel Carson, 1962

Nature’s gifts to our planet are the millions of species that we know and love, and many more that remain to be discovered. Unfortunately, human beings have irrevocably upset the balance of nature and, as a result, the world is facing the greatest rate of extinction since we lost the dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago. But unlike the fate of the dinosaurs, the rapid extinction of species in our world today is the result of human activity.
The good news is that the rate of extinctions can still be slowed, and many of our declining, threatened and endangered species can still recover if we work together now to build a united global movement of consumers, voters, educators, faith leaders, and scientists to demand immediate action.

Earth Day Network is asking people to join our Protect our Species campaign.

The goals are to:

  • Educate and raise awareness about the accelerating rate of extinction of millions of species and the causes and consequences of this phenomenon.
  • Achieve major policy victories that protect broad groups of species as well as individual species and their habitats.
  • Build and activate a global movement that embraces nature and its values.
  • Encourage individual actions such as adopting a plant-based diet and stopping pesticide and herbicide use.

Custom Protect Ear Carbon Footprint

By purchasing any of our hearing protection products, you are helping us give back to the community. dB Cares™ is a Custom Protect Ear (CPE) initiative created to address the impact our doing business has on the environment and to help support the people and community where we live and work. We are also committed to making a difference in the battle against Noise-Induced Hearing Loss. There is more to CPE…

dB Cares™ For The Planet

CPE is committed to becoming more sustainable by working to eliminate or offset any adverse effects our business may have on the planet. Some of the programs we initiated are:

  • Reducing energy consumption and by purchasing strictly green power: generated from renewable resources. bullfrogpower.com
  • Reducing landfill waste by making our protectors with a 5-year life span, and by reusing, recycling or reclaiming waste materials whenever we can.
  • Making all marketing materials available in digital formats that can be supplied over the internet; and when printed, only on post-consumer papers with environmentally sensitive inks.
  • Refining our production processes to engineer out any adverse effects on the environment.
Protect Ear

From all of us at Custom Protect Ear – Happy Earth Day, do your part.

 

 

Solving the Hearing Loss Epidemic – One Ear at a Time

April 16, 2019

Exposure to high levels of noise can cause permanent hearing loss, and each year approximately 30 million people in the United States are exposed to hazardous noise in the workplace.

According to OSHA, “Loud noise can create physical and psychological stress, reduce productivity, interfere with communication and concentration, and contribute to workplace accidents and injuries by making it difficult to hear warning signals,” the agency states, adding that noise-induced hearing loss can impair a person’s ability to understand speech and communicate.

Noise-related hearing loss has been listed as one of the most prevalent occupational health concerns for more than 25 years. Thousands of workers every year suffer from preventable hearing loss due to high workplace noise levels. In 2009 alone, BLS reported more than 21,000 hearing loss cases. Neither surgery nor a hearing aid can help correct this type of hearing loss.

Short term exposure to loud noise can also cause a temporary change in hearing (your ears may feel stuffed up) or a ringing in your ears (tinnitus). These short-term problems may go away within a few minutes or hours after leaving the noisy area. However, exposure to loud noise can lead to permanent tinnitus and/or hearing loss. The effects of hearing loss can be profound. Noise induced hearing loss limits your ability to hear high frequency sounds, understand speech, and seriously impairs your ability to communicate. Learn more about the symptoms of Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL)

What are the warning signs that your workplace may be too noisy? Noise may be a problem in your workplace if:

  • You hear ringing or humming in your ears when you leave work
  • You must shout to be heard by a coworker an arm’s length away
  • You experience temporary hearing loss when leaving work.

Sound Advice on Hearing Protection

Technology

Advances in technology allow employers to provide workers with hearing protection that doesn’t disrupt situational awareness. This includes the addition of FT filters embedded in medical grade silicone custom hearing protection, called dB Blockers. The proprietary frequency tuned filter allows communication without removal of the ear plugs. People can communicate in noise better while wearing their dB Blocker™ hearing protection, then if they were to remove them. A dB Blocker Hearing Loss Prevention Program will enhance productivity.  Workers can communicate without having to remove their hearing protection, preventing hearing loss and avoiding mistakes due to miscommunication.

How to Wear

Just because you own hearing protection does not mean you are wearing it correctly. If hearing protection isn’t worn the way it’s designed to be worn, workers are more vulnerable to injury. This may seem straightforward, yet, a large percentage of users don’t take the time to wear hearing protection properly.

Another common problem is overprotection. When workers use hearing protection that prevents any sounds from being heard, a worker may be considered “functionally deaf” and this is a safety issue.  If a worker has trouble communicating with co-workers, or can’t hear emergency signals, back up signals or dangerous noises this may lead to injury or death.

Fit check surveys continue to imply numerous employees are not wearing their options properly. Most companies in the industrial sector have gone above and beyond to ensure that in-house hearing protection meets the occupational standards, but if workers are not complying and educating themselves – we will not solve the hearing loss epidemic.


Don’t take your hearing for granted, we don’t realize we have hearing loss until it is too late.

SOURCE:

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/noisehearingconservation/healtheffects.html

https://ohsonline.com/Articles/2007/10/Fit-Testing-of-Hearing-Protectors.aspx

← Old Posts