|
| |
|
|
|
|
Do you realize that of
a huge range of personal hearing protectors (earplugs and earmuffs)
that has been available on the market today, only few protectors may be
appropriate in your particular case ?
|
|
 |
|
The specification of personal hearing
protectors (printed on boxes containing protectors) usually provides information
on noise attenuation in a table that shows:
-
MEAN (noise attenuation) and STANDARD
DEVIATION,
in octave band spectra from 125 Hz to 8000 Hz; and
-
SOUND LEVEL CONVERSION for 80% of the population (SLC80).
Quite often in practice, the SLC80
is contentedly used by employers to assess the appropriateness of protectors,
e.g. if an employee is exposed to the LCeq,8h of 93 dB(C)
and the SLC80
of a protector is 23, an employer believes that
the employee wearing this
protector is exposed to the LAeq,8h
of only 70 dB(A) [i.e. 93-23].
It may not be the case !
The selection (verification of appropriateness) of personal hearing
protectors MUST BE MORE SOPHISTICATED, if you care for your employees and if you
wish to prove that the protectors that you provide for your employees are
adequate indeed (e.g. during proceedings of workers' compensation claims).
The proper selection of personal hearing protectors should be:
-
based on site-specific spectra of noise
(frequencies of noise)
your employees are exposed to;
-
better that those for 80% of the population
(after all, protection
for 80% of the population means that one of
your five
employees
may not be protected adequately).
Our rigorous selection of personal hearing protectors is:
-
based
on actual (measured on your site) spectra of noise; and
-
statistically valid for practically the entire range of the population.
|
Disposable Ear-Plug Fitting Instructions
It is important to make
sure that your ear-plugs are inserted and fit properly, or you will not
get the full benefit of their noise attenuation.
|
|
 |
Before fitting any ear-plugs, make sure your
hands are clean!
Hold the ear-plug between your thumb and forefinger. Roll and
compress the entire ear-plug to a small, crease-free cylinder.
While still rolling, use your other hand to reach over your head and
pull up and back on your outer ear. This is important! This
straightens the ear canal, making way for a snug fit. Sometimes it
helps to hold your mouth and throat open whilst inserting the earplugs.
Insert the ear plug and hold for a few seconds. This allows the ear
plug to expand and fill the ear canal.
When properly inserted, the ambient sound level should drop way down
as the earplugs expand. You'll feel like the "world's closing in
on you" as some have mentioned. If you can cup your hands over
your ears and the noise seems to decrease, your ear plugs are probably
not fitted properly. Remove and refit following instructions.
Always remove ear plugs slowly, twisting them to break the seal. If
you remove them too quickly, you could damage your ear drum! Foam
ear plugs are disposable and are not supposed to be re-used. |
See also:
     
| |
|
Shortcuts to our
most important pages
|
|
.JPG)
