A Story of Impact: Measuring How Well Earplugs Work

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Measuring how well earplugs work ; r2p
• Journal Article:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Each year an estimated 22 million workers are exposed to noise loud enough to harm their hearing. The problem crosses many industries, including manufacturing, con-struction, agriculture, mining, and transportation. When noise levels cannot be reduced through engineering controls, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that workers use hearing protection devices (HPDs) to protect themselves from the damaging effects of noise. Despite decades of OSHA-mandated HPD use, noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) remains highly prevalent. All HPDs sold in the U.S. are evaluated in a test laboratory and labeled with a Noise Reduction Rating (NRR). However, studies have repeatedly demonstrated that the NRR does not accurately predict noise reduction performance for an individual in the workplace. Research shows that most workers achieve less than half of the sound attenuation predicted by the NRR. The difference between the NRR and actual worker attenuation varies widely across different types of protectors and different ear canal sizes and shapes. Personal hearing protector fit-testing is the only way to know how much noise reduction an individual receives and to ensure that each worker is sufficiently protected from excessive noise. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Ear Ear Protective Devices Hearing Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced Laboratories Noise Noise, Occupational Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Personal Protective Equipment Protective Clothing Safety Sense Organs

  More +
• Keywords:
  Humans; Workers; Worker-health; Ear-protection; Ear-protectors; Hearing-protection; Hearing-conservation; Noise-protection; Equipment-design; Equipment-reliability; Performance-capability; Laboratory-testing; Testing-equipment; Noise-levels; Noise-measurement; Noise-exposure; Sound-attenuation; Personal-protective-equipment; Injury-prevention
• Source:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2015-181, 2015 May; :1-2
• Series:
  NIOSH Numbered Publications
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Handout/Flyer
• 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:
  2 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20046215
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction ; Manufacturing
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d7bff4c9ceb148090d738cd036f05bc6dc4874567c3c57ccf3092efdd408249082f6737ff43bbbe5a94b5283ce26f31b6c01b97c2596108866d2769f0fe57284
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/31070/cdc_31070_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 788.70 KB ]