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State of the art: new testing methods and passive hearing protectors.
Noise Induced Hearing Loss: Basic Mechanisms, Prevention and Control. D Henderson, D Prasher, R Kopke, R Salvi, and R Hamernik, eds. London, United Kingdom: Noise Research Network Publications, 2001 Jan; :187-195
In the past five years, there have been major developments in passive hearing protection. In the United States a new method for determining the real-ear attenuation at threshold has been adopted by the American National Standards Institute. This method seeks to obtain laboratory data that are predictive of real-world, work-site outcomes for workers using hearing protection. The method is similar to that used in the European Union, but employs 20 subjects with two repetitions per subject for testing earplugs, and ten subjects for testing earmuffs. Another development has been the appearance of many types of passive devices and addressing the issue of overprotection and speech intelligibility. Major manufacturers have introduced earplugs and earmuffs with flat attenuation or with reduced ear-cap resonance. Also introduced are earplugs with special vents that increase attenuation with increasing sound pressures that have been designed to be especially effective for blast overpressures such as occur with weapons fire. Last, a commercial system has been developed for the fit-testing of earplugs.
Hearing-protection; Hearing-threshold; Laboratory-testing; Workers; Ear-protection; Ear-protectors; Protective-equipment; Personal-protective-equipment; Personal-protection
Book or book chapter
Henderson-D; Prasher-D; Kopke-R; Salvi-R; Hamernik-R
Noise Induced Hearing Loss: Basic Mechanisms, Prevention and Control
Page last reviewed: March 11, 2019
Content source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Education and Information Division