Hearing Protection For Your Valuable Workers


It is absolutely essential that the hearing of your workers is protected at all times during the work day.  Hearing loss can never be “cured” and, once lost, hearing problems will be with a person for the rest of their lives.  Hearing protection for workers is monitored by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) because most hearing loss in the United States is the direct result of noise exposure that often occurs on the job.

If you are a worker, then there are some “signals” that will let you know that you have some loss of hearing:  1.) Sounds appear to be “muffled”.  2.) You have difficulty hearing faint noises.  3.) When there is background noise, you find that you can’t understand spoken words.  4.) Your ears sometimes feel full.  5.) The volume on your TV or radio is never loud enough so you have to keep turning it up in order to hear.  Any of these things can be a sign that there is something definitely going on with your hearing.  While any loss of hearing can’t be restored, you can take steps to avoid it from be damaged any further. 

OSHA has found that when noise levels are above 85 decibels, a person’s hearing is put at risk.  This is often the case in many industrial settings and OSHA requires that workers wear some kind of device to protect their hearing.  Recommended devices are foam earplugs and special ear muffs.  Most industries today make certain that they take the appropriate steps to protect their workers at all times, including keeping their hearing intact. 

Unless a worker wears the appropriate hearing protection, his hearing will likely be affected in some way.  All industrial shops must make sure that their workers wear the devices given to them at all times and they are limited to the amount of noise exposure they receive each day.  Workers also need time for their ears to “take a rest” away from high decibel noise.  Workers should also be told that they need to have periodic hearing tests done to make sure they aren’t experiencing any hearing loss.  Many industrial shops provide free hearing tests to determine if additional steps need to be taken to assure that their shops are safe. 

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