Do you enjoy hearing your kids call your name? Do you like listening to your car or “truck radio, your CD or tape deck, or that great noise a crowd makes at a ball game? If so, you need to listen up. Today we are going to discuss hearing protection. Your hearing is one of the senses given to you at birth. If you abuse it, you can begin to lose it, and in the long run you could go completely deaf!
Our ears enable us to receive sounds and pass them alone to our brain. We can hear sounds that are very quiet, we can hear our friend’s laughter, and we can hear the loud noises equipment makes. It’s that loud noise that can cause hearing loss if you don’t protect against it.
Today, in excess of twenty million Americans suffer some measurable hearing loss and sixteen million workers are exposed to noise on the job that could damage their hearing. OSHA regulations require employers to take measures to reduce exposure to noise levels at or above 90 decibels. The intensity of a sound is measured in decibels (DB). A whisper measures about 20 dB, our average speaking voice is 60 dB, a shop saw is 100 dB and a jet plane is 140 dB.
There are a few things we can do to reduce our exposure to noise and protect our hearing.
- First we can try to engineer the noise away by putting up sound barriers or enclosing certain processes.
- Second, the company can schedule workers so they spend less time around high noise operations. Depending on the circumstances, these two options may not be possible to implement but the third thing we can do anywhere, anytime — wear hearing protection.
Different shapes sizes are available — ear plugs will give you some protection, ear muffs provide you with better protection. To achieve maximum protection use both. Like any other form of personal protection they are only good when you wear them.
They won’t help you if you keep them in your pocket or lunch pail.
Let’s summarize — loud noise causes hearing damage — resolve to wear protection when needed.
