Selecting the Right Earmuff

By Colin MacKenzie and Gary Klee

When combining hearing protection with safety glasses, face masks, etc., ensure performance is not adversely affected.

Wearing hearing protection can mean the difference between enjoying the sounds of everyday life and a lifetime of disability. Every day, we are exposed to potentially hazardous environmental noise. It is, therefore, critical that workers who must be present where the noise level is high and constant select either a muff or plug protector to reduce the noise level to an acceptable level. We will now discuss the factors you should consider when selecting the correct earmuff for the job.

Step 1: Determining Your Noise Level

Is the noise level and frequency content known (dB and Hz)?

If not, see the list of common noise sources on the next page. On some machines and power tools, you can find the dB level in the user manual or stated on a label on the machine.

If yes, follow this example: It is recommended that the calculated level under the earmuff should be under 85 dB (A). Therefore, subtract 85 dB from the noise level dB to find out the minimum protection level needed. The key is to provide enough attenuation but not enough to overprotect the wearer. Understand your whole-shift noise exposures and select the earmuff on the basis of that exposure, and do not use the highest measured noise level as your guide.

Example:

If you use a chainsaw, and the dB level is 110 dB (A). The recommended level under the ear cup should be below 85 dB (A). Therefore, you need an earmuff with an attenuation of at least 25 dB (110–85 =25).

When to consider selecting an earmuff with a lower protection level:

• Is the exposure time shorter than four hours? The earmuff protection level is based on noise exposure over an eight- hour working day. If the exposure is shorter, you should consider selecting a lower protection level.

• Do you need to hear important information from colleagues, warning signals etc.? Consider selecting a lower protection level or use an electronic level dependent earmuff.

• Are you suffering from hearing loss? If you have a hearing impairment, you may already have difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments. If you select the highest attenuation for hearing protectors, you may find it even more difficult to communicate or hear warning alarms.

• When to consider selecting an earmuff with a higher protection level:

• Does the noise consist mainly of low-frequency noise? If the noise is mainly low frequency, you should consider selecting a higher protection level because low-frequency noise is more difficult to block out.

• Do you need to wear safety glasses, face masks etc.? When combining hearing protection with safety glasses, face masks, etc., ensure performance is not adversely affected. If you are uncertain, seek additional advice and guidance or select an earmuff with a slightly higher protection level.

• Are there any other noise sources nearby? If there are other noise sources nearby, you should consider selecting a higher protection level.

Step 2: Choose the Correct Earmuff Style

• Are there any requirements to wear a hard hat at your workplace? If so, select a cap-mounted ear muff. Make sure that the hard hat you choose has universal slots that can be used in combination with the selected ear muff.

• Do you need to wear a bump cap or a hat for sun protection? Neckband ear muffs can be worn around the back of the neck, so users can wear them with bump caps, full-brim hard hats, or hats without attachment slots.

Step 3: Other Requirements

• Is the noise intermittent, or do you move in and out of noisy areas? Consider selecting an electronic level-dependent earmuff. The level-dependent earmuff protects against impulsive or intermittent hazardous noise while allowing situational awareness.

• Are you working with monotonous or stationary work tasks without the need to hear warning signals, etc.? Select an earmuff with a built-in AM/FM radio. Employees who wear radio earmuffs are more productive and motivated on the job.

• Are you working with monotonous work tasks and need to hear warning signals, etc.? Select an earmuff with both AM/FM radio and a level-dependent hearing function.

Common Noise Sources

Below are examples of different noise sources with their approximate sound pressure level in dB(A). These examples should only be used as guidance, as large variations may occur. The distance and surroundings also will affect the noise level.

Colin MacKenzie is President, Sales & Marketing at Hellberg Safety. Gary Klee is Product Manager, Above-the-Neck, at Protective Industrial Products Inc. (PIP), which is the exclusive supplier of Hellberg hearing protection in North America.

Photo Credit: Protective Industrial Products Inc.

URGENT: Demand Hearing Loss to be Acknowledged as a Disability

Recently, Hearing Health Foundation learned that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted a study on the prevalence of disability in the U.S. The study examined vision loss, cognition, mobility, self-care and independent living, but failed to mention hearing loss, the third most common public health concern after diabetes and heart disease.

Hearing Health Foundation is outraged by this gross oversight and finds the exclusion of people living with hearing loss from the report to be a troubling concern. Failing to acknowledge hearing loss diminishes the fact that having a hearing loss is a concern worthy of attention and treatment, as well its impact on a person's quality of life, ability to work, and full participation in society.

Hearing Health Foundation is not sitting back quietly, and neither should you! We will be sending representatives at the White House and CDC a letter asking them to take swift and meaningful steps to correct this gross error, acknowledge hearing loss as a disability, and amend the report accordingly. 

If you would like to take action with HHF, please sign our petition on Change.org. You can also download this letter, sign and return it to us by e-mail or mail (Take Action, c/o Hearing Health Foundation, 363 7th Ave, NY, NY, 10001). We will be sending all letters on September 1st. 

If you have any questions or would like to share your own letter with us, please email us at info@hearinghealthfoundation.org.

Thank you,

Claire Schultz 

Chief Executive Officer 

Hearing Health Foundation

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Rhythm, Noise and Nature

By Jessica Greenwood

When you think about pollution, what comes to mind? Most of us imagine major oil spills, smoke pushing out from factory chimneys, piles of cars idling in morning traffic, pesticides spraying over our crops or plastic bags floating through air and water, only to find their way to our oceans. All of these images are accurate and deserve our attention. However, more notice should be directed towards another pollutant that disturbs the very rhythm of life: NOISE.   

All of our systems, from the small to large, work under the influence of rhythm. Rhythm is the arrangement of sound as it moves through time. Airplanes, electronics, traffic, construction, sirens, trains, poor building acoustics and many more sources of noise, sometimes at excessive levels, contribute to drowning out life’s natural rhythm.

As a society, we have become accustomed to a world with a constant buzz and general loudness, but at what cost? There are the more obvious issues, such as hearing damage (i.e. hearing loss, tinnitus, Meniere’s, and hyperacusis), which can be instantaneous and permanent, but that is only the tip if the iceberg. Noise pollution and hearing loss can cause many psychological issues such as stress, fatigue, insomnia and depression, to name a few.

It’s important to remember that humans are not the only creatures who are disrupted by all this noise; wildlife has been profoundly affected by the constant humming of this planet. Animals rely heavily on the ability to hear for survival; to hunt, mate and flee danger requires sensitivity to sound, sound that is becoming harder for wildlife to distinguish. Even in the deepest ocean waters the impact noise pollution is having on aquatic life is the source of many news articles.

So what can you do about all of this noise and drama created around our sensitive ears? There are several solutions to this problem, but the first step is simply becoming aware of the sounds surrounding us and educating ourselves about safe listening levels.

April 29th, 2015 is International Noise Awareness Day (INAD). In celebration, HHF and Puro Sound Labs, a Hearing Health Partner that shares HHF’s vision for a world where people can enjoy life without hearing loss and tinnitus, are joining forces. We are asking YOU to document any noisy part of your day by taking a short video or audio recording. It can be of anything, such as riding a subway car, sirens passing by, excessively loud restaurants or concerts, or the waves crashing onto to the beach, among other noises encountered on a regular, everyday basis. The only supplies you need are your ears and cell phone or camera to capture sounds and noises you experience. Once captured, please share it with us on Facebook and Twitter by using the hashtag #HearTheNoise.

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/HearingHealthFoundation

https://www.facebook.com/purosound?fref=ts

Twitter:

@HearingHealthFn

@PuroSoundLabs

As an organization dedicated to cure hearing loss and tinnitus, Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) understands the importance of prevention and awareness, which is why we recently added “promoting hearing health” to our mission. While HHF has an incredible and committed following, HHF cannot spread the word alone, and enlists the help of its corporate partners to help.

One such company is Puro Sound Labs, a small start-up that created headphones with volume limits at 85dB, the maximum sound level for safe listening. Volumes exceeding 85dB can cause irreversible damage, such as Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). NIHL is a growing epidemic, with the numbers of people affected by hearing loss expanding, rapidly, especially among our youth. Personal listening devices and earbuds are likely the greatest contributor to this epidemic producing volumes well over a safe level, often exceeding 110dB, at which damaged can be sustained in a matter of minutes.

While Puro Sound Labs is company that has dedicated itself to providing great sound without the need of excessive volume, they wanted to take their commitment to hearing health and prevention to the next level: the company is contributing a portion of each pair of BT2200 headphones sold, to HHF’s mission of finding a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.  

Together Puro Sound Labs and HHF are Partners with a Purpose.

Your Brain Is a Muscle: Use It or Lose It

By Sloan Blanton

Brain Awareness Week (March 16-22, 2015) celebrates one of the most important organs in the human body and current progress and breakthroughs in brain research. While the brain literally affects every organ and bodily function, did you know hearing loss, especially when it goes untreated, can affect brain function and size? It can also affect quality of life. Depression rates are higher for those with hearing loss, as is the likelihood of emotional issues, such as anger and withdrawal, which can lead to poor mental health.

I was born with a sensorineural hearing loss in both ears so it is all that I have ever known. While I sometimes feel socially isolated because I am not always able to follow the conversations around me, and I also know my speech development has been directly affected by my hearing loss, my cogitative ability has been in no way impaired. However, several studies have found a correlation between aging, cognitive function, and hearing loss. For a long time, many researchers believed the two to be unrelated, but recent findings have proven otherwise.

From 2001 to 2007, the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study tested the hearing and cognitive abilities of nearly 2,000 adults between ages 75-84. In the study, those with hearing impairment lost cognitive abilities up to 40% more quickly than typical-hearing participants. Additionally, participants with hearing loss developed cognitive issues on average three years sooner than those with typical hearing.

Numerous theories dive into the relation between the brain and hearing loss, such as that the brain must work harder to process sounds when there is an inability to hear, which then takes the brain’s attention away from other cognitive functions. "We take for granted that processing sound is simple, but for the brain it's very energy intensive," Dr. Frank Lin, the assistant professor conducting the study, reported. "The most powerful computers in the world are no match for the sound-processing capabilities of the brain of a 3-year-old child."

The decline of cognitive ability impairs other brain functions, such as thinking and memory retention. Social isolation resulting from hearing loss can put the elderly at greater risk for dementia and other cognitive impairments. "It's early days yet, but we have seen that if you take an adult with typical hearing and put her in an MRI scanner while listening to garbled speech, the scans reveal that the brain has to spend extra energy to decode it," says researcher Jonathan Peelle.

In 2014, Neurolmage published Lin’s study on hearing loss possibly causing the brain to atrophy, like an unused muscle. Those who have had hearing loss for at least seven years or longer tended to have brains with small temporal lobes, making short- and long-term memory and processing meaning from sensory input difficult.

According to Healthy Hearing, a deeper understanding of hearing loss, both its causes and its effects, is crucial. The hope is that individuals with age-related hearing loss could benefit from cognitive and perceptual training exercises, and thus can have an improved quality of life. That includes better physical health, better mental health, improved relationships, and the ability to continue to engage in society. To make sure you're receiving the best care and are living the highest quality life possible, make an appointment with your hearing healthcare professional for your annual checkup; more than just your hearing will benefit.

Watch out for the “Break the Stigma” issue of Hearing Health Magazine this spring, which will include research on how addressing, and then treating, hearing loss leads to happier, healthier outcomes. If you're not already a subscriber to the FREE magazine, subscribe here.

Make Listening Safe

By Sloan Blanton

Our ears are one of our most precious commodities. With our ears we are able to communicate with our peers, enjoy the beauty of music, tune into the natural world around us and become aware of safety hazards, such as sirens. Some people are born without the ability to hear, and for thousands of years those individuals lived without any legitimate hearing solutions. In the past 150 years, numerous technological advancements have emerged, providing hearing assistance through the use of hearing aids, assistive listening devices, cochlear implants, and more.

However, today's increasingly industrialized society poses a new risk. A growing number of people are prone to noise-induced hearing loss. Our smartphones and personal audio devices increase our vulnerability, especially when we are tuned in for extended periods of time. Concerts, nightclubs, and sporting events make us prone to hearing loss as well.

For all of these reasons and more, the First International Conference on Prevention and Rehabilitation of Hearing Impairment established the annual International Ear Care Day in 2007. The event is held on March 3 each year to build advocacy and promote hearing care in countries all around the world. This year's theme is: "Make Listening Safe."

The World Health Organization (WHO) works closely with this event, releasing an annual assessment of each country's status in providing quality ear care services. This year, the WHO found startling numbers to be true about the state of hearing loss in the world; over 1.1 billion young adults ages 12 to 35 are at risk for "recreational hearing loss." In this age group, 43 million people currently deal with the unfortunate effects of hearing loss, whether it is noise-induced or through birth defects or illnesses. Recreational hearing loss leads to many harmful effects. Physical and mental health can be affected, as well as employment and education opportunities. Hearing loss may also lead to attention-seeking behaviors and learning disabilities.

“As they go about their daily lives doing what they enjoy, more and more young people are placing themselves at risk of hearing loss,” says Dr. Etienne Krug, the director of the WHO’s Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence, and Injury Prevention. “They should be aware that once you lose your hearing, it won’t come back. Taking simple preventive actions will allow people to continue to enjoy themselves without putting their hearing at risk.”

Both intensity and duration affect safe listening levels. The safe level at 85 decibels (dB) is eight hours of continual exposure. The number drops drastically at 100 dB to just 15 minutes. Exposure to these loud sounds usually leads to temporary hearing loss and a ringing sensation in the ear (tinnitus). When the exposure is particularly loud, regular, or prolonged, it can lead to permanent hearing loss and a lack of speech comprehension, and is damaging the ear's sensory cells. High-frequency sounds are typically the first to be impacted.

To reduce the risk of noise-induced hearing loss, set the volume on your personal audio device to no greater than 60 percent of the maximum volume. Wear earplugs in bars, at sporting events, and in other loud places. Even using headphones allows sound to be customized for individual listeners. Take short breaks while in loud environments to reduce the harmful effects of noise exposure, such as avoiding loudspeakers.

By having one’s ears checked regularly, individuals are able to monitor the onset of hearing loss before it becomes a serious concern. There are also many smartphone apps that provide useful information regarding volume levels to inform users of whether they are exposing their precious ears to risky sound levels.

Hearing Health Foundation is a proud supporter and partner of International Ear Care Day. It is worth marking on your calendar in an effort to curb the trend of noise-induced hearing loss while encouraging mankind to develop lasting solutions to lifelong problems.

Source: World Health Organization

Good Acoustics for Green Buildings

By Kathi Mestayer

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a green building certification program run by the U.S. Green Building Council. Its objective is for buildings to save money and resources and have a positive impact on the health of occupants, and promote renewable, clean energy.  

This includes good acoustics. “Our 2009 ratings systems for schools and healthcare institutions cover sound because of the overwhelming evidence that it critically affects learning and healing environments,” says Larissa Oaks, the LEED Indoor Environmental Quality Specialist with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

Surveys by the Center for the Built Environment and other groups have shown that occupants of office buildings and other work environments rated “acoustic comfort” low, even when the air quality and temperature were deemed acceptable. Acoustic comfort is defined as conducive to speech intelligibility, speech privacy, and concentration where appropriate, with few distractions and annoyances.

Optimizing green design and good acoustics can be a balancing act. "The imperatives of green design—such as lower-energy consumption mechanical equipment and designs, harder-surfaced materials, reduction in use of full-height partitions, and more glass—resulted in spaces that achieved high marks for efficiency, and high LEED certification levels, while simultaneously not meeting the needs of the occupants acoustically," says Ethan Salter, a principal at Charles M. Salter Associates in San Francisco and a lead technical adviser for the LEED acoustics credits.

These credits specify measures to create (and ways to measure) sound isolation and speech privacy, and reduce background noise and external noise. For example, for school acoustics, limits apply for noise from HVAC (heating and cooling) systems and noise from adjacent spaces.  

Limits are also set to minimize the effect of reverberation from hard surfaces, which makes speech harder to understand. Reverberant environments can degrade speech intelligibility and increase the “noisiness” of a space, with greater potential for distraction. To mitigate reverberation, designers can incorporate absorptive materials where possible; there are a number of new, sustainable material options that fit within the “green” framework.

As of this writing, LEED credits are in place for acoustical performance for healthcare facilities, classrooms, offices, and other workplaces. There is also a pilot credit for exterior noise control.

Take a closer look at an example of LEED acoustical credits here.

I’ve written about the dangers of workplace noise; the perils of an open office plan, especially for anyone with a hearing loss; and one company’s efforts to protect their employees’ hearing.

Marion Downs Appreciation

By Amy Gross

I had no idea how influential Marion Downs had been—and at the time, still was—regarding newborn infant screening, but it didn't take much research to discover that this woman was a big, big deal. I don't know why, but her passing on November 13, 2014, caught me by surprise. It didn't matter that she had reached her 100th birthday; I, like many of her fans, found it difficult to accept that the force known as Marion Downs had moved on, peacefully, in her sleep.

Marion (she wouldn't let me call her "Ms. Downs") was 92 when we spoke. She was still skiing and swimming and playing tennis competitively, and one of the photos in “Shut Up and Live!” showed her gleefully skydiving with a handsome young instructor (she made sure to point out the "handsome" part several times). I had read every word of her book, in which she provided candid advice for anyone dealing with the aging process: the importance of weight training, why hearing aids are critical in the health of a marriage, and how to maintain a healthy sex life into one's senior years. I loved that she was able to make me blush more than a few more times; the woman minced no words.

What had put Marion Downs on the map, audiologically speaking, were her pioneering efforts, beginning in the early 1960s, in the essentially unheard-of area of infant hearing testing. An audiologist herself, Marion and a research partner started hearing testing for newborns before those infants had even left the hospital, fitting even the tiniest babies with hearing aids. Today, thanks to Early Hearing and Detection Intervention programs, 97 percent of newborns have their hearing screened. Knowing what we know today about the importance of hearing with respect to language and even cognitive development in extremely young children, there's no telling how many infants with hearing loss were identified as such in a timely manner, and their developmental skills saved, because of Marion Downs's work.  

The Marion Downs Center in Denver, Colorado, a nonprofit organization that espouses, as Marion did herself, a cradle to grave approach in dealing with hearing loss, will continue her efforts in advocating for those with hearing loss. Marion was a visionary in the world of hearing health. Her legacy lives on, quite visibly, in the children whose lives she touched.

Show our Veterans that You Are Hear For A Cure

By Pallavi Bharadwaj

Can you imagine returning home after serving in the military for your country without your hearing and with constant ringing in your ears?

Credit: @srz/Unsplash

Tinnitus and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) are the number one and two war wounds among veterans returning home. In the past decade, over one million service members have been impacted by tinnitus, hearing loss, and/or other auditory disorders.

To provide support to the community of veterans with hearing problems, Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) launched a veterans’ resource center on our website. This section is designed to help veterans cope with hearing loss and tinnitus. Resources such as research updates on new treatment options, stories from veterans who have been affected, and topical features from Hearing Health magazine can be accessed here.

Most importantly, we would like to share with our service members the exciting prospect of a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus through our Hearing Restoration Project (HRP). The HRP is working to translate the ability in chickens to restore hearing for humans in order to deliver a cure for veterans and for all those suffering from hearing loss and tinnitus.

If you are a veteran, current service member, or have family or friends who have bravely served our country, review these resources about hearing loss and tinnitus.

Communication Is Critical to Care

By Kathi Mestayer

I recently visited my father, who wears a cochlear implant, in a rehab facility, where he was recovering from surgery.

His room, right next to the nurses’ station, was pretty noisy. There was a constant array of beeps, rings, clanging equipment, and talk. I measured the noise level with my decibel meter smartphone app (AudioTools) and got a reading of around 65 dBA inside the room, about 10 feet from the door. That’s equivalent to normal conversation, but it could make it very difficult for a person with a cochlear implant to correctly understand a medical question.

The rehab center staff was well-meaning, attentive, and caring. But the level of awareness of communication problems for those with hearing loss was spotty.  

• No captioning phones (and no idea of whether they would work in the facility).  

• No idea of what a cochlear implant looked like.

• No way to communicate in writing.

To be fair, that’s not unusual. Earlier this year, I visited my uncle in the hospital. He had had a hearing loss for years. Due to his Parkinson’s disease, he also had a hard time speaking. They were having difficulty getting him to agree to the doctor’s recommendation of a colonoscopy. He was under the mistaken impression that they were talking about a colostomy, and hesitant to agree. Fortunately, I had brought in a whiteboard and marker the day before. I wrote the words “Colonoscopy” and “Colostomy” in big letters on the board, and crossed out “Colostomy” with a big X. He took the write board and wrote “U Sure?” on it. “YES,” I said, nodded, and wrote on the board. He agreed to the procedure on the spot.

I recently became aware of a two-year-old Department of Justice (DoJ) program called the Barrier-Free Healthcare Initiative. The Department of Justice, which also oversees the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has committed resources and attention to the important work of providing, among other things, effective communication for patients with hearing loss in hospitals, pharmacies, rehab facilities, and doctors’ offices.

Useful resources:

Click here to get the full scope of the Barrier-Free Healthcare Initiative.

The ADA’s primer on how to communicate effectively with people who have hearing loss.

And if you’re wondering whether the DoJ is making headway, read updates here including about the success the DoJ has had working with healthcare facilities to help them meet the ADA requirements.  

Kathi Mestayer writes about workplace noise issues. Read her articles here:

• This Is Your Workplace on Noise

• Undercover Noise Cop

• Closed Captioning: Keeping the Pace

• Restaurant Conversation: Not Just for the "Early Birds" Any More

The Harm from Noise

By Pallavi Bharadwaj

Workplace noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is among the most common type of NIHL in the United States, among other countries. In the U.S., 30 million workers are estimated to be at risk for NIHL, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Austrian researchers recently presented a study titled “Early prognosis of noise-induced hearing loss”  recently in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 

It has long been assumed that some individuals are more vulnerable to occupational NIHL than others because of the wide variation in hearing loss after equivalent exposures. Earlier attempts to define predictors of workplace NIHL susceptibility have been inconclusive. Recently in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Austrian researchers presented a study titled “Early prognosis of noise-induced hearing loss” that evaluated the potential of temporary threshold shift (TTS) to predict future NIHL.

Between 1982 and 1989, 311 participants (welders and fitters) were included in a prospective study during their initial health screening visit. At this occasion, a standardized noise exposure was applied: 20 minutes at frequencies of 200 to 500 hertz (Hz) and at a volume of 100 dBA. The TTS at 4 kilohertz (kHz) was determined during at least 10 minutes after exposure. Hearing loss was monitored at follow-up visits every three to five years, averaging 13 years in total.

The Austrian researchers say the temporary threshold shift (TTS) model can be successfully applied as a method to detect individuals at greater risk of workplace NIHL. It is recommended to routinely include such a procedure into initial workers’ examinations for suitability to work under occupational noise conditions and for counseling on the use of hearing protection.

Read the abstract here.

To learn more about workplace noises see:       

• Protection for All

• This Is Your Workplace on Noise

• Office Space