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ProtectEar USA Tradeshows

April 21, 2015

The Custom Protect Ear team actively attends ongoing Tradeshow and events in Canada. This is an excellent time to learn more about the dB Suite of Products: dB Blocker, dB Com, dB Life and FitCheck Solo.

Come see us at the following shows. Remember to tweet us and let us know you’re coming. @protectear #peus

April 21-22
Wisconsin Safety & Health Congress
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
Booth #1914

April 28-30
2015 Mohawk Safety Conference
Dalton, GA

May 5-6
Minnesota Safety & Health Conference
Minneapolis Convention Center
Booth 706

May 13-14
Northwest Safety & Health Summit
Red Lion on the River, Jantzen Beach, Portland, OR
Booth #6

May 19-21
2015 Region V VPPPA Conference
Greater Columbus Convention Ctr, Columbus, OH

June 2
Blue Mountain Occupational Safety & Health Conf.
Pendleton Convention Center, Pendelton, OR

June 4-5
Elko Mining Expo
Elko, Nevada

June 16-18
Region IV VPPPA 2015 Safety & Health Conference
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Aug 24-27
2015 VPPPA
Gaylord Texan Convention Ctr, Grapevine, TX
Booth #801

Sept 9-11
2015 Georgia Safety, Health & Environmental Conference   
Savannah Marriott Riverfront, Savannah, GA

Sept 28-30
2015 NSC Congress & Expo  
Atlanta, GA

 

Click here to see the Canadian Shows.

VISIT US AND GET CUSTOM FIT SOLUTIONS

Our custom fitting process usually takes about 10 minutes and typically begins with one of our highly trained experts visiting the customer’s plant or workplace in order to do the fitting on-site.

We begin by first inspecting the ear to make sure it’s safe to take an impression. Then an oto-dam is placed inside the ear to protect the eardrum. Impression material is prepared and carefully injected into the client’s ear. The material hardens quickly, and moments later, the impression is gently removed.

The impression creates an exact replica of the wearer’s ear canal and outer ear. This ensures the dB Blocker seals the ear both in the canal and around the ear. Making every dB Blocker unique to the ear it fits.

See our video to learn how to wear your dB Blockers™

 

Remember * dB Blockers ™ are the hearing protectors you can hear through.

Call us today! CALL 1800-520-0220

Custom Protect Ear Spreads The Word About International Ear Care Day 2015

March 3, 2015

Custom Protect Ear Spreads The Word About

International Ear Care Day 2015

March 3, 2015, Vancouver BC, Custom Protect Ear, North America largest personalized industrial hearing protector manufacturer shares in spreading the word about International Ear Day.

International Ear Day is an initiative of The World Health Organization to focus attention on the damage people are doing to their ears. Designated at the First International Conference on Prevention and Rehabilitation of Hearing Impairment in Beijing, China in 2007, the Day aims to raise awareness and promote ear and hearing care across the world.[1]

In 2015, the theme for International Ear Care Day is ‘Make Listening Safe’. This theme will draw attention to the rising problem of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). NIHL can be immediate or it can take a long time to be noticeable. It can be temporary or permanent, and it can affect one ear or both ears. Even if a person can’t tell that they are damaging their hearing, they could have trouble hearing in the future, such as not being able to understand other people when they talk, especially on the phone, in a noisy room or at a noisy worksite. Regardless of how it might affect you, one thing is certain: noise-induced hearing loss is something that be prevented[2]

For years hearing professionals have been trying to determine why people suffer from hearing loss. There are companies that do routinely measure how loud these noises are, plus they measure how much of that loudness people are exposed to. Hearing loss has become a worldwide problem, however there are devices and processes to do something about danger of Noise Induced Hearing Loss.

Hearing protection devices have been around since the 1930’s with companies like Honeywell, 3M, and Custom Protect Ear committed to finding better ways to make hearing protection. Custom Protect Ear makes a device called dB Blockers, which is hearing enabled. This means that people/workers can wear the dB Blockers in a noisy place over a long period of time and will not experience the affects of Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL)

“dB Blockers not only block noise, they also  manage the noise to the ear to a safe level. Given our human propensity to keep safe, especially in loud threatening noise, is it any wonder workers/people choose safety for the whole human over safety for their ears? ” ~ says Jeffrey Goldberg President of Custom Protect Ear 

March 3rd, International Ear Care day is a day for awareness and promote ear and hearing care across the world. The day highlights general awareness about recreational hearing loss has potentially devastating consequences for physical and mental health, education and employment. Join Custom Protect Ear and The World Health Organization in following the hearing loss activities that have been organized for the International Ear Care Day.

About Custom Protect Ear

For over three decades, Custom Protect Ear has been the leader in providing effective, verifiable, and noise level matched hearing protection at a cost lower than disposable earplugs. As North America’s largest personalized industrial hearing protector manufacturer, hearing conservation is their only business.Custom Protect Ear devotes all of their research and expertise to the innovation of making better hearing protection. As a result, Custom Protect Ear has made significant technological advances in the development of superior hearing protection.

For More Information please contact

Jeffrey Goldberg
Custom Protect Ear
604 599 1311
Jeffrey@protectear.com

 

[1] http://www.who.int/pbd/deafness/news/IECD/en/index1.html

[2] http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/noise.aspx

International Ear Care Day: ProtectEar

Ear Care Hearing loss

What is International Ear Care Day?

It’s an initiative of The World Health Organization to focus attention on the damage we are doing to our ears.

Let me pose a question.

What would be the government’s response to 1/3 of a population coming down with the same disease?

  • 2 million people in New York develop the flu.
  • 5 million people in Southern California develop Chicken Pox or Measles.

The response would most certainly be swift and decisive.

Noise Induced Hearing Loss

Did you know that 1/3 of the people working in noise have a workplace illness called Noise Induced Hearing Loss. Now it is not exactly the same as acquiring a deafness illness, however the damage is done because the onset of their hearing loss has taken place over many years; whereas in the scenarios I sighted above the onset of the disease is more immediate.

Many of us wonder how did this happen?

For years hearing professionals have been trying to determine why people suffer from hearing loss. We certainly know these industrial sites and noises can be loud and damaging. Not only do we routinely measure how loud they are, we also measure how much of that loudness workers are exposed to. So we know the danger. We also have devices and processes to do something about that danger.

For example, there are companies capable of engineering the noise out of facilities. How prevalent is that? United Technologies recently won the prestigious Safe-in-Sound award from NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, a Branch of the Center for Disease Control) and The National Hearing Conservation Association for removing enough noise from their workplaces to move 80% of their noise exposed workers (8,000 people) from their hearing conservation programs world wide. We are also educated in ways to protect our hearing when exposed to noise.

Hearing Loss – A bigger problem

Hearing protection devices have been around since the 1930’s with companies like Honeywell, 3M, and Custom Protect Ear committed to finding better ways to make hearing protection. So what’s the problem?

Let’s start with engineering the noise out of facilities. A recent pole of Canadian companies suggested that about 10% of them measure the noise exposure of their workers. That does not mean they don’t know what noise levels they have; they do. (The difference between noise level and noise exposure is how much time the worker spends in what level of noise). It’s the amount of noise a worker is exposed to over a given time that the company has to control; but many companies don’t know what that is. Protecting their workers based on the noise level rather than noise exposure usually means that in most cases you’re actually over protective. This is based on the assumption that someone who works in 95 decibels of noise seldom is in the noise for 8 hours, without breaks.

Then where’s the problem?

The following contains some conjecture unproven, as yet, by independent study

Most organizations will provide their workers with hearing protectors sufficient to protect their hearing from the noise they are exposed to. Some of the workers will use it properly and some don’t. To understand why, we need to look at the human condition. Dr. Barry Blesser states that since man first descended from the trees, it is our hearing that has been our primary safety sense. Hearing can detect dangers we can’t see. Unlike other senses, the ears are fully functional when the human is born; the rushing waterfall hidden by the trees, a large animal crashing through the undergrowth, a charging wildebeest coming around a rock are audible before they are visible. It is possible we are genetically wired to rely on our ears to keep us safe.

The one thing we can assume about places with loud noises is that something dangerous is making that noise. Then to protect our hearing from that loud noise we usually render them partly or fully non-functional by plugging them. At this point I need to point out that Custom Protect Ear’s dB Blockers are hearing enabled. They don’t block as much as manage the noise to the ear to a safe level. Given our human propensity to keep safe, especially in loud threatening noise, is it any wonder workers choose safety for the whole human over safety for their ears? Often they disable the full protection the hearing protection device offers. I think it’s to keep safe.

As I said, this has yet to be conclusively proven by independent study but the fact remains that workers routinely don’t leave their earplugs fully in place when exposed to noise. What’s the solution? AEar Care Hearing loss recent roundtable at the National Hearing Conservation Association Annual Conference in New Orleans agreed that we need to know the answers to the question of Why workers disable their protection. Until we do, we should provide workers with hearing enabled devices, with effective education as to their use, and the dangers of not using it. We owe it to them. Especially on International Ear Care Day.

Jeffrey Goldberg | President
Custom Protect Ear

Noise Reduction Rating (NRR). The Possibilities

February 12, 2014

Noise Reduction Rating (NRR)

Hearing protectors are labeled with a Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) that is derived from  laboratory measurements of the attenuation provided to trained and motivated human subjects in a ‘sterile’ environment. As intended, these measurements represent a best-fit condition. The literature indicates that the average attenuation provided to end-users of hearing protectors is often only a fraction of the labeled values. To learn more about the practical alternative to relying on the NRR, click here. 

Custom Protect Ear would like to present a FREE  WHITEPAPER about obtaining Personal Attenuation Rating (PAR) that is compared to Noise Reduction Rating (NRR).

Field Attenuation Estimation Systems: THE POSSIBILITIES

Would it be nice if you could determine how effective a hearing protector was under workplace conditions. In Appendix FAES The PossibilitiesIV:C of the OSHA Field Manual, Methods for Estimating HPD Attenuation, U.S. OSHA states, “The actual effectiveness of any individual hearing protector cannot be determined under workplace conditions” (U.S.Department of Labor). This has never been completely true. It has been difficult, but not impossible, to determine the actual effectiveness of any individual hearing protector for any individual user because of two issues. First, there has been no available commercial product for testing hearing protector effectiveness for the individual user until just recently – for less than 10 years compared to an OSHA regulation on noise and hearing conservation that dates back almost 45 years in its most skeletal form. Second, there have been no accessible commercial methods for determining the effectiveness of any individual hearing protector for any individual until recently. In fact, now there are three:

  • There are methods involving simulations of the real-ear attenuation at threshold (REAT) using large-cupped earphones to place over the ears to test earplugs. (Michael and Associates FitCheck, Workplace INTEGRA, Inc. INTEGRAfit, NIOSH Well-Fit and FitCheck Solo)
  • There are methods involving having a person balance the loudness of a signal presented to an open ear to that of a signal presented to an ear occluded with an earplug.
  • There are methods that employ the use of a sub-miniature or probe microphone placed in a surrogate protector to predict what attenuation a user would receive when wearing the actual hearing protector in a similar manner.

To read complete paper fill out the form to get the Field Attenuation Estimating System Whitepaper Report. Click here:

I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet

January 20, 2014

The Peace in “Quiet.”hearing loss

It was a cold rainy Sunday as I was browsing through the web seeing if I could find anything interesting to read. I often like looking at the New York Times to get a sense of what the masses are thinking. And to my surprise I stumbled over this article. This article hit close to home, as I am in the business of hearing loss prevention.  Our company Custom Protect Ear makes personal hearing protection that’s fights against noise and noise pollution in both everyday and work environments. Hearing Loss Prevention is our business.

“And nothing disrupts thought the way noise does, Schopenhauer declared, adding that even people who are not philosophers lose whatever ideas their brains can carry in consequence of brutish jolts of sound”. 

So, I share this article with all of my friends, colleagues, subscribers, contacts and customers. This article does an excellent job in depicting the raw affects of everyday noises and it impacts our thought process. Our world has become so filled with noise pollution that we as humans may have forgotten what “quiet” is.

I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet

By GEORGE PROCHNIK – Published: August 24, 2013  In the NewYORK TIMES SUNDAY REVIEW. 

SLAMMING doors, banging walls, bellowing strangers and whistling neighbors were the bane of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s existence. But it was only in later middle age, after he had moved with his beloved poodle to the commercial hub of Frankfurt, that his sense of being tortured by loud, often superfluous blasts of sound ripened into a philosophical diatribe. Then, around 1850, Schopenhauer pronounced noise to be the supreme archenemy of any serious thinker.

 Argument Against Noise

A great mind can have great thoughts only if all its powers of concentration are brought to bear on one subject, in the same way that a concave mirror focuses light on one point. Just as a mighty army becomes useless if its soldiers are scattered helter-skelter, a great mind becomes ordinary the moment its energies are dispersed.

And nothing disrupts thought the way noise does, Schopenhauer declared, adding that even people who are not philosophers lose whatever ideas their brains can carry in consequence of brutish jolts of sound.

From the vantage point of our own auditory world, with its jets, jackhammers, HVAC systems, truck traffic, cellphones, horns, decibel-bloated restaurants and gyms on acoustical steroids, Schopenhauer’s mid-19th century complaints sound almost quaint. His biggest gripe of all was the “infernal cracking” of coachmen’s whips. (If you think a snapping line of rawhide’s a problem, buddy, try the Rumbler Siren.) But if noise did shatter thought in the past, has more noise in more places further diffused our cognitive activity?

Environmental Noise Calls Attention to Itself

Schopenhauer made a kind of plea for mono-tasking. Environmental noise calls attention to itself — splits our own attention, regardless of willpower. We jerk to the tug of noise like sonic marionettes. There’s good reason for this. Among mammals, hearing developed as an early warning system; the human ear derived from the listening apparatus of very small creatures. Their predators were very big, and there were many of them.

Mammalian hearing developed primarily as an animal-detector system — and it was crucial to hear every rustle from afar. The evolved ear is an extraordinary amplifier. By the time the brain registers a sound, our auditory mechanism has jacked the volume several hundredfold from the level at which the sound wave first started washing around the loopy whirls of our ears. This is why, in a reasonably quiet room, we actually can hear a pin drop. Think what a tiny quantity of sound energy is released by a needle striking a floor! Our ancestors needed such hypersensitivity, because every standout noise signified a potential threat.

There has been a transformation in our relationship to the environment over the millions of years since the prototype for human hearing evolved, but part of our brain hasn’t registered the makeover.

Every time a siren shrieks on the street, our conscious minds might ignore it, but other brain regions behave as if that siren were a predator barreling straight for us. Given how many sirens city dwellers are subject to over the course of an average day, and the attention-fracturing tension induced by loud sounds of every sort, it’s easy to see how sensitivity to noise, once an early warning system for approaching threats, has become a threat in itself.

Indeed, our capacity to tune out noises — a relatively recent adaptation — may itself pose a danger, since it allows us to neglect the physical damage that noise invariably wreaks. AHyena (Hypertension and Exposure to Noise Near Airports) study published in 2009 examined the effects of aircraft noise on sleeping subjects. The idea was to see what effect noise had, not only on those awakened by virtual fingernails raking the blackboard of the night sky, but on the hardy souls who actually slept through the thunder of overhead jets.airplane noise

The findings were clear: even when people stayed asleep, the noise of planes taking off and landing caused blood pressure spikes, increased pulse rates and set off vasoconstriction and the release of stress hormones. Worse, these harmful cardiovascular responses continued to affect individuals for many hours after they had awakened and gone on with their days.

As Dr. Wolfgang Babisch, a lead researcher in the field, observed, there is no physiological habituation to noise. The stress of audible assault affects us psychologically even when we don’t consciously register noise.

Loud Sounds can be Debilitating

In American culture, we tend to regard sensitivity to noise as a sign of weakness or killjoy prudery. To those who complain about sound levels on the streets, inside their homes and across a swath of public spaces like stadiums, beaches and parks, we say: “Suck it up. Relax and have a good time.” But the scientific evidence shows that loud sound is physically debilitating. A recent World Health Organization report on the burden of disease from environmental noise conservatively estimates that Western Europeans lose more than one million healthy life years annually as a consequence of noise-related disability and disease. Among environmental hazards, only air pollution causes more damage.

A while back, I was interviewed on a call-in radio station serving remote parts of Newfoundland. One caller lived in a village with just a few houses and almost no vehicular traffic. Her family had been sitting in the living room one evening when the power suddenly cut off. They simultaneously exhaled a sigh of relief. All at once, the many electronic devices around them (including the refrigerator, computers, generator, lamps and home entertainment systems and the unnatural ambient hum they generated and to which the family had become oblivious) went silent. The family members didn’t realize until the sound went off how loud it had become. Without knowing it, each family member’s mental energy was constantly diverted by and responsive to the threat posed by that sound.

Where does this leave those of us facing less restrained barrages? Could a critical mass of sound one day be reached that would make sustained thinking impossible?

Is quiet a precondition of democracy? The Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter  suggested it might just be.  “The men whose labors brought forth the Constitution of the United States had the street outside Independence Hall covered with earth so that their deliberations might not be disturbed by passing traffic,” he once wrote. “Our democracy presupposes the deliberative process as a condition of thought and of responsible choice by the electorate.”

The quiet in Independence Hall was not the silence of a monastic retreat, but one that encouraged listening to others and collaborative statesmanship; it was a silence that made them more receptive to the sound of the world around them.

Most likely Schopenhauer had in mind a similar sense of quiet when he chose to live in a big city rather than retiring from society: apparently he, too, believed it important to observe as much of life as possible. And when he moved to Frankfurt, he didn’t bring earplugs. He brought along a poodle known to bark on occasion, and the flute he loved to play after writing. Most people who are seeking more serenity from the acoustical environment aren’t asking for the silence of the tomb. We just believe we should be able to hear ourselves think. Read Full Article: 

My Thoughts..

This article clearly illustrates that “the scientific evidence shows that loud sound is physically debilitating”. This is not common knowledge to most people. Sound and noise affects everyone who is exposed. Depending on the length of time and pitch of the noise – exposure can cause damage.  Unless we intend on living away from civilization– silence is something that is very hard to achieve. However, if we are aware of the surrounding noises that affect and shift our mental state then we like Schopenhauer can enjoy our time and environment with tools that allow us to drown out the unnecessary debilitating noises.

I encourage all of you to share this article with your circles.

Warm Regards,

Jeffrey Goldberg | President

Custom Protect Ear Inc.

2013 Holiday Hours

December 20, 2013

ProtectEar USA completes its’ first year

As we come to an end of another year 2013, we would like to extend our gratitude and thank all of our partners, vendors and customers in supporting our vision in obtaining a safe working environment through Hearing Loss Prevention Programs.

Cpe hours

Our Hours of Operation during the holiday season are as follows:

December 23, 2013 – 830am – 12pm (Pacific Standard Time) 

December 24, 2013 – 830am – 12pm

December 25 – 27th – CLOSED 

December 31, 2014 – 830am – 12pm 

January 1, 2014 – CLOSED 

This year has been another rewarding year. We had the opportunity to launch our USA website site: www.protectear.com/us, PLUS we also launched our newest and latest product, FitCheck Solo. FitCheck Solo allows wearers to check the attenuation of specific earplugs to ensure maximum protection against noise.

At ProtectEar USA, we are continuing our pursuit in providing a safe and healthy work environment with our Hearing Loss Prevention products and programs.

From our home to yours…. we wish you a safe and happy

Holiday Season.

Warm Regards,

Jeffrey Goldberg | President
Custom Protect Ear

NEW! FitCheck Solo

October 22, 2013

ProtectEar takes the guesswork out of matching the right hearing protection with noise exposure.

October 21, 2013, Surrey BC. Canada. Custom Protect Ear Inc. (CPE) introduces a NEW product to Hearing Conservation called FitCheck Solo™. Developed by NIOSH/Dr. K. Michael and distributed by Custom Protect Ear Inc. CPE (Canada) and ProtectEar USA (United States), FitCheck Solo™.  is fast, accurate and simple.

Ease-of-use and being able to test someone with any earplug in place the way they fit them that day is what makes FitCheck Solo™ “The Smartest Fit Testing System In The World”. FitCheck Solo™ helps take the guesswork out of matching the correct hearing protection with known noise exposure.

You have tools that can measure the noise hazard, and can even measure the exposure to the noise hazard. The missing piece is knowing what attenuation you are giving them   to deal with this exposure. FitCheck Solo™ can accurately measure this, for any earplug. As a training vehicle, it is the only system that can test a person’s attenuation the way they fit the plug that day. Simply pull the wearer out of the noise environment and test them with their earplugs still in place AND THEN with the plug removed. This is A GREAT way to show and teach people how to fit the plug themselves.  Another reason why FitCheck Solo™ is “The Smartest Fit Testing System In The World”.

 “The mission of Custom Protect Ear is the elimination of NIHL* for those we serve. The missing piece was always knowing the attenuation. We know the noise level, we know the exposure and we guess at the attenuation. Guessing is a thing of the past. No NRR, no de-rating, just the actual personal attenuation the wearer gets, finally!” ~ (Jeffrey Goldberg, President | Custom Protect Ear Inc.)

FitCheck Solo™ can be used by Safety Managers, Industrial Hygienists, Facility Managers, and Health &Safety Managers to measure any earplug from any source without additional devices – just a laptop, headphones and the actual earplugs they use.FitCheck Solo

To Learn more about FitCheck Solo™ please contact us today!

Custom Protect Ear
1-800-520-0220

The National Safety Council Congress & Expo

September 23, 2013

 The 2013 National Safety Council Congress & Expo in Chicago

The NSC Congress & Expo is the world’s largest annual “must attend” event for safety, health and environmental professionals. For more than 100 years, professionals have turned to this event for industry-leading technology, education, networking opportunities and the tried and true products and services needed to stay at the forefront and remain competitive within the industry.The Congress is designed to build awareness of the tools available to you and your organization as you continue down the path to safety excellence.

The NSC Congress & Expo experience offers:

Educational Opportunities

  • Attendees don’t have to hunt through blogs for perspectives on trends and best practices – they can choose from a host of carefully selected opportunities led by verified safety experts. And because safety challenges come in all shapes and sizes, presenters make time for Q&A at the end.

Keynotes

  • Hear nationally recognized leaders and motivational s from both the public and private sectors speak about current and future issues affecting the industry.

Technical Sessions

  • Participate in more than 130 technical sessions, selected by a team that has hands-on knowledge of the latest industry trends providing the most comprehensive information needed to face today’s challenges.

Professional Development Seminars

  • Participate in more than 30 seminars providing in-depth, hands-on opportunities to focus on continued professional growth. Explore the Expo floor offering 190,000+ net square feet of more than 900 companies showcasing the latest innovative products and services. You’ll also find the New Product Showcase area, the Solution Center, OSHA’s Top 10 most cited safety violations and solutions from the International Safety Equipment Association.

Who attends and why?

The NSC Congress & Expo attracts decision makers, end users and distributors from a wide variety of industries including: manufacturing, construction, petrochemical and utilities. Coming from the United States, Canada and more than 60 other countries, these individuals range in experience from entry level to seasoned safety professionals representing companies such as Boeing, Schneider Electric, BP, Industrial Scientific, Kimberly Clark, URS, RockTenn Norcross, Fruit of the Loom and more.

Who exhibits?

Hundreds of industry-leading companies from around the world exhibit offering products and services in the following categories: general safety products, personal protective equipment, hazard controls and fall protection. Additionally, vendors specializing in facility maintenance and operation, environmental protection, ergonomics and risk management are in attendance to showcase their latest safety solutions.

Come See ProtectEar USA at BOOTH 534 September28th – October 4th, 2013

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Custom Molded Earplugs

February 4, 2013

Custom Protect Ear has been providing custom hearing devices for over 25 years. The custom molded ear products sometimes called Personalized Hearing Protection, are just as, if not more, effective for the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss as are disposable earplugs.

What is a custom-moulded earplug?

A custom-moulded earplug is a laboratory-made earplug made from moulds taken by trained experienced impression takers. In North America the experienced impression takers may be audiologists, licensed hearing aid dispensers, or impression takers well trained by the manufacture. Most often, these are made of acrylic or soft silicone that can fit the ear and the ear canal tightly. The advantage of the softer earplugs is they change shape slightly as the wearer’s ear canal changes shape when talking or chewing, thereby continuing to seal during those activities.This deems to have great benefits when working in high activity – noise induced environments.

The custom-moulded earplugs are typically delivered in a protective storage/carrying pouch and will be accompanied with a tube of lubricant (most often petroleum jelly).dB-blocker-

The lubricant is applied to the earplugs during their initial use/break in period. The lubricant makes the earplugs easier to insert and also softens the interface of the earplug and ear improving comfort.

After about ten or so uses with the lubricant applications can stop as the silicon should have absorbed enough material to be easily inserted for the life of the earplug.

What is a disposable earplug?

So-called “foam” and pre-moulded earplugs are designed to be used for one time or in some cases, a few times. Exceptions to this restriction are those very expensive earplugs such as the Hi-Fi or military earplug that can be cleaned for repeated use.

Until the 1970’s the most common earplug was the V51-R made from soft silicone, a single-flange earplug developed for the military that came in five sizes. Because it didn’t work well, it required precise fitting.  Eventually it was discontinued due to repeated pressures from the scientists and practitioners in the hearing health community. Later other earplugs were developed with multiple flanges. ear plugs

When is a “custom-moulded” earplug NOT “custom”, but really a long-term use disposable earplug?

Simply put: Earplugs directly made from the impression materials, which can be considered as fitter-formed or mould-in-place, are not custom-moulded earplugs (Lake, 2012). This is true for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost is the impression material. Impression materials now used for laboratory-made custom-moulded earplugs are designed for the purpose of taking the impression and holding shape whist in transit to and whilst being processed to make moulds by the laboratory. Fitter-formed impression material is intended to become the final product and so it “cures” while setting during the impression process. In order for this to work, the fitter-formed impression material is more viscous than impression materials used for laboratory-made custom-moulded earplugs. As such, the likelihood of an impression free from flaws and with a faithful rendering of the shape of the concha and helix as well as the pinna and ear canal is small.

The impression for the laboratory-made custom-moulded earplug is also usually a silicone product made from mixing a base putty with a liquid or gel activator. Some laboratories use two-part silicone materials that combine catalyst and silicone in 50/50 proportion. The result is far less viscous material than used for the fitter-formed products; its viscosity is such that it may be put into a syringe for injecting into the ear canal and concha and helix of the pinna.

Second is the impression process. Fitter-formed products use putty created from combining a base putty with a liquid activator and then folding them until blended. That putty begins to cure immediately but has less-than a three-minute time window when it will be malleable. The putty is rolled into a cylinder and the pushed down the ear canal and padded into the concha and helix of the pinna. Once it seems to have cured, it is removed from the ear and trimmed. Handles or the ends of cords may have been attached after the insertion but before the impression cured.

For a custom-moulded laboratory-made earplug, following otoscopy, a cotton or foam dam is placed into the ear canal with its placement confirmed by otoscopy so that there is no chance for the impression material to travel deeply enough to make contact with the eardrum. As well, if the ear canal has excessive cerumin, the ear canal may be cleaned by the audiologist taking the impression or the person may be referred to his or her own physician to have the ear canals evaluated and cleaned – the exact procedure depends on locality and regulatory requirements.

Then, the impression material is injected to fill the entire ear canal between the dam and the opening of the canal behind the tragus and finally the bowl of the concha and the helix are filled.  There is a debate over whether the mouth should be closed, opened, or slightly opened during the time it takes for the impression material to set. The mouth slightly open (relaxed or with a bite block of 20 mm or so that) has been shown to provide better bass than mouth closed when the earplug is modified to be used with insert earphones. There have been no published studies of the differences in noise reduction between laboratory-made custom-moulded earplugs made from mouth-relaxed versus mouth-closed impressions.

Once the impression material has set, it is carefully removed from the ear, inspected to make sure there are no creases, ridges, or other malformations, and put into a package to be sent to the laboratory. There is no trimming done by the impression taker.

The experience and training of the impression taker is also very important. Depending upon locality and professional licensing regulations, the impression taker may have been trained by the laboratory making the custom-moulded earplugs, or have academic or clinical training in impression taking.  In any case, once the impression reaches the laboratory, its staff can determine the quality of the impression and may ask for a second impression if the first has flaws that the laboratory can’t adjust.

Already in the hands of some audiologists are laser scanners that can make a digital image of the impression, and the image goes to the laboratory for further processing to make the mould from which the earplug is made. As the image is stored digitally, so long as the file is not corrupted, it is possible to make as many earplugs from one impression as necessary for as long as is necessary. Soon to come will be digital imaging of the ear canal and pinna, so that there will be no use of impression material, as the image of the ear will be sent to the laboratory to be process into an earplug.  Either of these techniques should remove impression making from the hands of amateurs and DIY’ers.

Learn more about the advantages of Custom Molded Earplugs “Download the Whitepaper”.

 

What dB Blocker wearers are saying. 

 “I would like to say thanks I have had my db blocker vented convertible ear plugs for the past 7 years I would like to say that you guys make the best ear plugs I have come across I am a welder I have bin in the industry for the past 10 years. That are worth every penny great quality. Thanks you so much I will be going to my boss’s at my work (national steel car) to get all my brothers a pair of Db blockers.”

~ Babb Matt – National Steel Car.

Hearing Loss and Workers Compensation

January 14, 2013

Employees who are subject to high levels of noise at work will eventually experience hearing loss if they are not using proper hearing protection.  If that employee applies for workers compensation for hearing loss, the difficulty arises in determining exactly how much of that hearing loss is due to work related noise levels, and what hearing loss is either non-occupational or a natural occurrence due to age.

Testing for Hearing Loss

Determining this level of hearing loss is up to the workers comp claims adjuster. This can be very challenging because they must go back through the employee’s medical history related to their hearing. In some cases, they may have to go back decades to determine the correct percentage of hearing loss caused by exposure to noise at work.High Noise Areas at Work

What the claims adjuster needs are previous records of audiograms performed by an audiologist or otolaryngologist in a soundproof room. These tests measure the employee’s hearing threshold at various frequencies. After finding previous records of hearing tests, the claims adjuster will then take a current reading of the employees hearing levels.

He or she then compares the previous levels to the current levels and adjusts the hearing loss depreciating the value for age and normal hearing loss that can be expected over the course of one’s lifetime.

If the new test shows an increase in hearing loss, the patient must then go through further testing by an otolaryngologist to determine if the hearing loss is due to a defect in the middle ear, an infection or a previous injury rather than to noise levels at work.

If the otolaryngologist determines that the hearing loss is due to one of these factors, the application for workers compensation can be denied, but if the otolaryngologist can determine that the hearing loss is due to noise levels or a combination of hearing problems, then the claim can continue.

Ask for a Baseline Audiogram – Mandatory from OSHA

Due to the complexity of determining these claims, it is imperative that employers offer baseline audiograms (mandatory under OSHA regulations) to new hires and encourage employees to wear hearing protection. The best way for employers to limit workers compensation cases is to protect the hearing of workers from the beginning.

Companies that incorporate hearing protection, like Custom Ear Protect dB Blockers™ into their safety program, will save money by decreasing hearing loss claims and reducing the cost of the claims that do occur. Explore our website to see how you can learn more about the difference in noise frequencies, how to test for noise levels at your workplace and how you can implement a successful hearing protection program.

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