Noise-related hearing loss is the most common occupational disease around the world, accounting for almost one-third of all work-related illness. These disorders can lead to long-lasting effects causing stress, fatigue or isolation that significantly increase the risk of work-related accidents caused by other factors. Hearing loss is irreversible and often detected late, so PPE covering this risk is classified as Category III.
To choose the correct product for hearing protection:
1.
Identify the nature of the noise: stable, fluctuating, intermittent, pulse
2.
Measure tthe noise at the working station: intensity(dB) and frequency(Hz)
3.
Determine the exposure time.
4.
Calculate the reduction necessary to return an acceptable ambient level
Noise , as a vibratory phenomenon is characterized by:
1. Its intensity(in decibels [Db] corresponds to the amplitude of the vibrations emitted by the sound source. 0 dB corresponds to the minimum sound level audible by the human ear. The pain threshold is 120 dB and the ear could be damaged from 85 dB
2.Its frequency(in Hertz[Hz]) which will define the perceived height. The higher the frequency and the higher pitched the sound. The lower it is and the lower pitched it will be. The human ear is able to perceive sounds at frequencies between 20Hz to 20,000 Hz.
3. Its duration and its variation which makes it possible to differentiate very brief sounds, of a duration in the order of a second, such as impulse noises(a short, impacts) of sounds that have longer duration(hours, or a day) for which it is important to consider the resulting dose of noise received.
The ear can be broken down into three distinct parts:
1. The outer ear consisting of the horn and the ear canal.
2. The middle ear between the eardrum and the inner ear. It is filled with air and allows using the ossicles to transform the aerial vibrations into the structure borne
Vibrations that can be analyzed by the inner ear.
3. The inner ear, the heart of the auditory system, consisting of a cavity filled with liquid containing the cochlea where the body of Corti is found. With it, the vibrations of the liquid
transmitted to the ossicles are picked up by the hair cells which select them by frequency. The information then conducted by the auditory nerve to the cerebral cortex which can be interpret it.
Wearing Rate