Hearing Protection
Most of us take hearing for granted. When we go home at the end of a workday, and when we get up in the morning, we expect to hear. Our amazingly sensitive ears can distinguish 400,000 different sounds and can detect sounds so quiet that they cause the eardrum to vibrate less than 1/80,000,000 of an inch. That remarkable sensitivity doesn’t have a lifetime guarantee though. In order to maintain hearing sensitivity, it must be protected.
Consider yourself at risk if noise affects you in one of the following ways:
- You have to shout above noise to make yourself heard.
- You have difficulty hearing normal sounds for several hours after exposure to noise.
- You have ringing in your ears for several hours after exposure to noise.
Is your workplace dangerously loud? Ask yourself: Is normal conversation difficult because of the noise? Have co-workers also complained about the noise? If so, then you need to protect your hearing by wearing ear plugs.
Ear Plugs decrease the pressure of the sound before it reaches the eardrum and are the best line of defense against noise when you can’t reduce exposures to safe levels through engineering controls. You must reduce your exposure to below 85 decibels per 8 hour period to mitigate damage to your hearing. Properly fitted earplugs will reduce noise levels 15 to 30 decibels, but must totally block the ear canal to be effective.
Conclusion:
Wear ear plugs at all times when equipment and machinery is running! What you do today, will save your hearing for tomorrow.
Questions:
- Properly fitted ear plugs reduce the decibel level by how much?
- If you cannot conduct a normal conversation, then you need to be wearing ear protection. True of False?