Acta Scientific Otolaryngology (ASOL) (ISSN: 2582-5550)

Short Communication Volume 4 Issue 1

Use of Hearing Protectors in the Workplace

Alberto Behar*p

Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

*Corresponding Author: Alberto Behar, Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

Received: September 23, 2021; Published: December 30, 2021

Abstract

Hearing protectors have gone a long way in the last half a century. The number and variety of existing devices is astonishing. Attenuations obtained by their use is sufficient to reduce the noise levels found in most workplaces to values dimed “safe” by jurisdictions and legislations. However, workers are still experiencing hearing losses. Many are resisting their use or are not wearing them correctly. Effort by myriads of health and safety professionals appears to return results that are not sufficient or satisfactory. One question remains not solved: that of comfort. There is no definition, and there is no objective way for comfort measurement. Until those are found, the only real tool for making protectors to be used is increasing worker’s education and raising the awareness regarding the hazardous effect of noise. This paper deals with hearing protectors in general but focuses mainly in problems with ear plugs.

Keywords: Protectors; Ear Plugs; Noise

References

  1. Johnson DL., et al. “Exposure Criteria, Occupational Exposure Levels”. World Health Organization (2001).
  2. Ontario Workers Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB): Noise Hazards in the Workplace (2021).
  3. Ontario Workers Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB): 2019 WSIB Statistical report (2021).
  4. Canadian Standard Z94.2-14 Hearing Protection Devices. Canadian Standard Association 2014. Reaffirmed (2019).
  5. Arezes P., et al. “Hearing Protectors Acceptability in Noisy Environments”. The Annals of Occupational Hygiene6 (2002): 531-536.
  6. Berger E. Hearing Protection Devices in Berger E. et al. Ed.: The Noise Manual, AIHA (2000): 423.
  7. Williams W. “Is It Reasonable to Expect Individuals to Wear Hearing Protectors for Extended Periods?” International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics2 (2009): 175-181.
  8. Behar A and Segu R. “Comfort from hearing protectors”. Journal of Human Ergology 45 (2016): 11-17.
  9. Doutres O., et al. “A critical review of the literature on comfort of hearing protection devices: analysis of the comfort measurement variability”. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics (2020): 1-12.
  10. ISO 4869-1:1990 Acoustics - Hearing protectors - Part 1: Subjective method for the measurement of sound attenuation. International Organization of Standardization (1990).
  11. ANSI/ASA S12.6-2016 (R2020): Methods For Measuring The Real-Ear Attenuation Of Hearing Protectors. American National Standard Institution (2020).
  12. Casali JG and Lam ST. “Over-the-ear industrial hearing protectors: an assessment of comfort issues”. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting 30 (1986): 1428-1432.

Citation

Citation: Alberto Behar. “Use of Hearing Protectors in the Workplace".Acta Scientific Otolaryngology 4.1 (2022): 51-54.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Alberto Behar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.




Metrics

Acceptance rate34%
Acceptance to publication20-30 days
Impact Factor0.871

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