Congratulations to the Winner of the 9th Safe-in-Sound Excellence in Hearing Loss Prevention Award

Details

• Personal Author:
  Morata, Thais C.
• Description:
  For the ninth consecutive year the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and NHCA presented the Safe-in-Sound Excellence in Hearing Loss Prevention Award at the 2017 Annual Hearing Conservation Conference. This year's award was given to Deputy Sheriff Ryan Scott of the Alachua County Sheriff 's Office in Florida who demonstrated initiative and innovation in examining noise exposure among police officers and identifying potential solutions in order to be safer on the job. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 1.2 million Federal, State, and Local law enforcement officers work in the United States [DOJ 2011, 2012]. These officers are required to train regularly in the use of firearms, typically at indoor firing ranges, and are often exposed to impulsive sounds that exceed the occupational health limits of 140 decibels (dB), with sound levels often reaching 160-170 dB peak sound pressure levels [NIOSH 2014]. Deputy Sheriff Scott recognized the potential risks that firearms qualification posed to his hearing health early in his career. Law enforcement firearms training takes place for eight hours at an interval of four times a year for standard patrol officers, every month for the typical special teams or SWAT team member, and up to 20 times a month for the agency's firearms instructors. In each eight hour session, an officer could accrue hundreds to thousands of rounds of exposure to firearms impulse noise. Typically officers are provided little to no education on hearing loss prevention or hearing protection devices. Deputy Sheriff Scott sought guidance from a faculty team at the University of Florida to learn about the high-level impulse sounds produced by firearms and interventions to minimize the risk. The new knowledge motivated him to develop an educational workshop: "Firearms Training and Hearing Loss" tailored specifically to the law enforcement community. As part of the program, Deputy Sheriff Scott educates workshop attendees about the potential for unprotected firearm sounds to damage their hearing, and the use of specialized hearing protection devices and firearm suppressors to reduce the sound levels. Deputy Sheriff Scott is a speaker who has credibility; he engages attendees with his own real-world career and training experiences. His commitment is even more noteworthy when one realizes that Deputy Sheriff Scott has invested both his personal time and money to voluntarily develop, travel and deliver his training sessions. He has also become an advocate, seeking to increase the availability of technological solutions and devices that integrate hearing protection with radio communication systems, so that situational awareness is preserved for those whose hearing is critical to job performance and safety. Deputy Sheriff Scott also reached out to a variety of stakeholders, including public safety officers and supervisory administrative personnel responsible for acquisition and purchasing decisions to educate them on available products and technologies that can help protect their personnel such as earplugs, earmuffs, safety glasses, and radio integration into earmuffs for range commands from firearms instructors. You can learn more about his program and the real world success of all of our previous award winners at www.safeinsound.us. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Ear Hearing Hearing Loss Law Enforcement Men Noise Noise, Occupational Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Preventive Medicine Protective Clothing Safety Sense Organs Women

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• Keywords:
  Auditory Protection Auditory System Ear Protection Ear Protectors Equipment Design Firearms Firing Ranges Hearing Loss Prevention Hearing Protection Hearing Tests Hearing Threshold Hierarchy Of Controls Humans Law Enforcement Law Enforcement Officer LEO Noise-exposure Noise-protection Noise Frequencies Noise Levels Noise Measurement Performance Capability Performance Tests Personal Protective Equipment Police Officers Preventive-medicine Sound Attenuation Wearable Technologies

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• ISSN:
  1083-7388
• Publisher:
  National Hearing Conservation Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Newsletter ; Lay Publication
• 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:
  5-6
• Volume:
  34
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20051587
• Citation:
  Spectrum 2017 Jul; 34(1):5-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Spectrum: the National Hearing Conservation Association newsletter
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:34962a374a899183fccd5d6a2a87a9de4c12a6f03fd6584771e736ebe76ece890b627543d59a8218b9e4c00d6f754f2058ee139293148753278d1792815d71d0
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/211468/cdc_211468_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 551.61 KB ]