An Evaluation of Sound Restoration Hearing Protection Devices and Audibility Issues in Mining

Details

• Personal Author:
  Azman, Amanda S. ; Hudak, Roberta L.
• Description:
  Despite advancements in engineering noise controls and the use of administrative controls, miners are still dependent on hearing protection devices for prevention of noise-induced hearing loss. However, miners often complain of reduced audibility or confusion about identifying spoken words when wearing conventional hearing protectors. This leads to an increased risk of miners being struck by moving equipment or errors in communication with co-workers. Miners will often remove their hearing protectors to overcome these obstacles. To address this problem, electronic technology exists that allows some amount of sound to pass through the hearing protector, therefore restoring some audibility of the passively attenuated sounds. This paper will present the results of testing completed on a selection of four sound restoration hearing protection devices, with the objective of determining if they provide improved speech intelligibility to workers near certain types of mining equipment. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Hearing Hearing Loss Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced Mining Noise Noise, Occupational Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Ear Protection Hearing-conservation Hearing-disorders Hearing-impairment Hearing-loss Hearing-protection Mine-workers Mining-industry Noise (working Environment) Noise-exposure Noise-induced-hearing-loss Noise-levels Noise-protection Personal-protective-equipment Protective-equipment

  More +
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISSN:
  0736-2501
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OMSHR - Office of Mine Safety and Health Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  59
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20040103
• Citation:
  Noise Control Eng J 2011 Nov-Dec; 59(6):622-630
• Contact Point Address:
  Amanda S. Azman, NIOSH, 626 Cochrans Mill Rd, P.O. Box 18070, Pittsburgh, PA 15236, USA
• Email:
  AAzman@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Noise Control Engineering Journal
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bd9a9efeb049563cf927ea757c7c2c13c0efd4ef0ccac61944b35c4520aada454ea493c5bdb471ec91d7e48e56b480e6d1d9108196b8913906458af9e096e1dc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/227400/cdc_227400_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 509.19 KB ]