Hearing Protector Attenuation: Models of Attenuation Distributions

Details

• Personal Author:
  Franks, John R. ; Krieg EF ; Murphy, William J.
• Description:
  Current hearing protector rating standards estimate the protection performance for a given frequency as the mean attenuation minus a multiple of the standard deviation. Distributions of real-ear attenuation at threshold data are fit with maximum likelihood estimation procedures using both normal and mixed-normal models. Attenuations from six hearing protectors, Bilsom UF-1 earmuff, Bilsom Quietzone, E.A.R Classic, E.A.R EXPRESS Pod Plugs, Howard Leight MAX, and Wilson EP100 earplugs, measured with a subject-fit protocol are reported. The mixed-normal (bimodal) model provides a better fit to the empirical data than the unimodal model for most frequencies and protectors. Primarily, the bimodal model fits the shape of the distributions caused by data from poorly-fit protectors. This paper presents an alternative method for estimating the protection performance either with the more accurate bimodal model or directly from the empirical cumulative distributions of the attenuation data. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Ear Hearing Loss Noise Noise, Occupational Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Protective Clothing Safety Sense Organs
• Keywords:
  Ear-protection Ear-protectors Hearing-loss Hearing-protection Noise-frequencies Noise-levels Sound-attenuation
• ISSN:
  0001-4966
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• 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
• Volume:
  111
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20023007
• Citation:
  J Acoust Soc Am 2002 May; 111(5)(Pt 1):2109-2116
• Contact Point Address:
  Division of Applied Research and Technology, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio 45226-1998
• Email:
  wjm4@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• NORA Priority Area:
  Disease and Injury: Hearing Loss
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Part Number:
  1
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:4706b0844c6ad3bbae7b3179e0436e57b52c5e10fd026823dbd413d1ac7f0bfca4650a9e1620f402c3cb662427dba3f74bbc2b5e7e5a8d5c0f7f87c8e539ae23
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/199600/cdc_199600_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 943.69 KB ]