Evaluation of Level-Dependent Hearing Protection Devices for Use with Impulsive Noises

Details

• Personal Author:
  Murphy, William J.
• Description:
  As a part of a NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation of law-enforcement personnel, the attenuation of several types of earplugs and earmuffs was measured in response to impulse noise produced by small-arms gunfire. The protectors were measured on a mannequin built by the Institute de Saint Louis for increased acoustic isolation of flanking pathways to the microphone. The earplugs demonstrated a range of peak reduction between 10 and 28 dB while the earmuffs ranged from 25 to 33 dB peak sound pressure level. The slopes of the peak reduction with peak level for most earplugs exhibited a slope of 0.2 dB/dB while earmuffs tended to have a slope of 0.5 dB/dB. Finally, the risk of hearing loss was estimated with the Auditory Hazard Assessment Algorithm for Humans (AHAAH model) and demonstrated a range of Auditory Hazard Units from 450 to 10 for impulses recorded underneath hearing protectors. AHUs could be reliably be predicted for small-arms fire from the peak level reduction. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Hearing Hearing Loss Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced Law Enforcement Noise Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Auditory-system Hearing-conservation Hearing-loss Hearing-protection Impulse-noise Law-enforcement Law-enforcement-workers Noise-induced-hearing-loss Risk-analysis Risk-factors
• ISSN:
  1083-7388
• Publisher:
  National Hearing Conservation Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings ; Abstract
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  24
• Volume:
  21
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20030374
• Citation:
  Spectrum 2004 Feb; 21(Suppl 1):24
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2004
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Spectrum: the National Hearing Conservation Association newsletter
• Supplement:
  1
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a4171d8be6cd2cea690b85efbe74d55e6a8c43ce0f10cc24688e97f9e54a7cd837be49ee2b9fa3e057dc4046ea12e79259295f2dace81c5e225ea4501dcd6e58
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191027/cdc_191027_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 4.33 MB ]