Source www.bloomberg.com/news
Hearing loss among U.S. adolescents has surged, probably because of the use of devices such as earbuds for listening to music, doctors say.
Researchers surveyed a sample of children ages 12 to 19 in 2005 and 2006 and found that 19.5 percent had some hearing loss, compared with 14.9 percent in a study covering the years 1988 to 1994, according to a report published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Hearing loss of 25 decibels or more -- enough that the children were often aware of the deficit -- increased to 5.3 percent of the sample, from 3.5 percent in the earlier group.
Listening to loud sounds through earbuds -- the tiny electronic speakers that fit into ears, for use with personal music players -- is probably the main reason that more adolescents are losing some of their hearing, said William Slattery, director of clinical studies at the House Ear Institute, a Los Angeles medical practice, who wasn’t involved in today’s study.
“Once you have hearing loss, there’s a greater risk of that hearing loss progressing as you get older,” Slattery, a clinical professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said today in a telephone interview. “Here is a major study that demonstrates that teenagers are having hearing loss in a significant percent of children. It can happen and it does happen.”
Teens and parents need to be told that hearing loss from noise that occurs early in life isn’t reversible, he said.
Effect in School
Hearing loss may affect teenagers’ social development and education, said Gary Curhan, an author of the study, who is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.
“In an educational setting, even kids with slight hearing loss do not perform as well as those with normal hearing,” Curhan said in a telephone interview on Aug. 13. “It’s potentially preventable.”
Curhan said parents whose kids are doing poorly in school may want to get the children’s hearing tested because most people with a slight hearing loss don’t know a problem exists.
The researchers examined data from the 2005-2006 National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey and the one conducted from 1988 to 1994.
Boys at Risk
The study showed that males had a higher rate of hearing loss than females. The researchers also found that teens whose families were below the poverty line were more likely to have impaired hearing.
Among the signs of potential hearing loss are asking that things be repeated, having difficulty following directions, listening to the television at a loud volume, having problems with speech and language, and having trouble identifying sounds, said Denise Miller-Hansen, a pediatric audiologist at Children’s Mercy Hospitals & Clinics, in Kansas City, Missouri, who wasn’t involved in today’s study.
“The key to prevention is education and getting it out there in the public domain so that people know about hearing loss and the possibility of hearing loss in children,” Miller- Hansen said today in a telephone interview. “We also need studies to look at causative factors for the hearing loss.”
Curhan said it’s unclear how loud and how long teens need to listen to personal music players such as Apple Inc.’s iPod for hearing loss to occur. Parents can set a volume limit on their children’s iPods and lock them with a code.
In December, Apple won a federal appeals court ruling upholding dismissal of a lawsuit that claimed the iPod and headsets sold with it are defective and the company doesn’t adequately warn about the possibility of hearing loss.
The article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-17/one-in-five-u-s-adolescents-has-hearing-loss-researchers-find.html
Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/
Many companies may be exposing their employees to unsafe noise levels and not even know it. If you are, OSHA requires you to develop and maintain a Hearing Conservation Program which includes annual industrial hearing testing of these employees. By answering just 16 questions below, you'll know whether or not your employees need industrial hearing testing.
OSHA requires that each worker in the Hearing Conservation Program must get an original audiogram, called a baseline, within six months of starting work in a risk area to determine how well he/she hears before they are exposed to noise by this employer. Thereafter, the employee must be industrial hearing tested every year.
Take this short quiz (provided by OSHA) to find out if you need a Hearing Conservation Program.
1. Have you conducted a noise survey to determine if your workplace has work processes or equipment that equal or exceed 85 dBA?
2. If your workplace has noise levels that equal or exceed 85dBA averaged over an eight-hour period, have you implemented a Hearing Conservation Program?
3. Are hearing protectors available at no cost to employees exposed to noise levels that equal or exceed 85 dBA average over an eight hour period?
4. Do employees use hearing protectors with noise-reduction ratings that reduce workplace noise levels below 85 dBA?
5. Are employees trained annually about the effects of noise on hearing, the purpose of hearing protectors and how to use them, and the purpose of audiometric testing if they are exposed to noise that equals or exceeds 85 dBA averaged over an eight-hour period?
6. Have employees exposed to noise work processes or equipment had personal exposure monitoring assessments to determine their eight-hour time-weighted averages?
7. If your workplace has noise levels that equal or exceed 90 dBA averaged over an eight-hour period, are you using engineering or administrative controls to reduce employee exposure below the 90 dBA limit?
8. Are employees permitted to observe exposure-monitoring evaluations?
9. Are employees notified about exposure-monitoring results that indicate they are exposed at or above 85 dBA averaged over an eight-hour period?
10. Are exposure-monitoring evaluations repeated when there are changes at your workplace that may affect noise levels?
11. Do you keep employees' exposure-monitoring records for at least two years?
12. Are baseline and annual audiometric tests given at no cost to employees who are exposed to noise that equals or exceeds 85 dBA averaged over an eight-hour period?
13. Do you ensure that employees are not exposed to workplace noise for at least 14 hours before their audiometric tests?
14. Does a licensed or certified technician, audiologist, otolaryngologist, or physician conduct employees' audiometric tests?
15. Do you keep employees' audiometric test records for the duration of their employment?
16. Is there a copy of the noise standard that applies to your workplace available for employees to review?
Did you know that ALL of your answers should be "yes?" It's true!
If you answered no to any of these questions, or aren't sure, a simple sound level survey or individual dosimeter survey will help you determine if your employees are being exposed to unsafe noise levels and whether or not your company is required to develop and maintain a Hearing Conservation Program.
For more information, for assistance on any of the above 16 points, or to get a sound level survey to determine if your workplace has work processes or equipment that equal or exceed 85, go to www.workplaceintegra.com or contact via info@wpintegra.com
How hearing protection changes speech understanding and what to do about it.
Source: Industrial Hygiene News: http://www.rimbach.com/
Supervisor: Hey – you aren’t wearing your earplugs. That’s the third time this week!
Employee: I know I know! But I just can’t hear Joe’s instructions! I had to take them out. It’s not my fault!
This classic interaction is played out everyday in the workplace. Employees, who struggle to hear, may remove their hearing protection temporarily and some may simply stop wearing hearing protection altogether. This response is likely to create a much bigger permanent communication problem: noise-induced hearing loss. In the meantime, worker complaints like this one may cause an employer to wonder:
“Is it reasonable to expect my employees to hear the sounds they need while they are wearing hearing protection?” After all, it does seem a bit counterintuitive to block the same sounds the wearer is trying to hear.
Understanding how hearing protection changes sound is an important step towards ensuring employees are appropriately protected from hazardous sound without impeding their safety or productivity. Hearing protection, worn properly, will decrease all sounds: both unwanted sounds (noise) and useful sounds such as speech and warning signals. With some attention, most communication issues can be resolved or at least improved. This article explains how hearing protection affects auditory communication and suggests approaches to overcoming difficult listening situations.
The ears on overdrive
The human hearing mechanism works most effectively at low and moderate sound levels. High sound levels, 85 dBA or greater, overdrive the auditory system and introduce distortion within the ear itself. Like the poor fidelity of overdriven speakers, overdriven ears cause signals to lose clarity, making speech difficult to understand. Wearing earplugs or earmuffs in a high noise environment is comparable to wearing sunglasses in intense sunlight. The filtering decreases the intensity and glare of bright sunlight to permit a more relaxed viewing experience. Like the photos in Figure 1, a day at the beach without sunglasses is harsh, causes squinting and perhaps a headache and early fatigue. But viewed through sunglasses the scenery is much more pleasant, the details easier to discern and the shadows and colors apparent. Likewise, hearing protection reduces the overall sound input that reaches the inner ear, allowing the auditory system to work more comfortably and effectively.
It takes two to communicate
Wearing hearing protection causes other changes. First, is a phenomenon called the occlusion effect. When the ears are blocked or plugged, external sounds become softer, but internal sounds seem louder and “echo” inside the head. People describe their own voice as “booming” or like “talking in a barrel.” As a result, when wearing hearing protection, employees are likely to speak more softly. Secondly, people tend to talk more quickly when wearing hearing protectors in noisy environments. The combination of talking more softly and quickly has obvious implications; the listener has more difficulty understanding the speaker. In the opening scenario, the employee removed his hearing protection to hear better, however, the speaker is still talking less loudly and too quickly, and the listener is hearing the factory sound at high levels. The problem isn’t solved by removing hearing protection and will only become worse over time as hearing is damaged.
Rest of the article: http://www.rimbach.com/scripts/Article/IHN/Number.idc?Number=237
One of the many courses offered at the Summer Institute held at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott in Norfolk, VA is the CAOHC Initial and Refresher Training.
“We still have room for some additional student’s in these classes,” stated Kathleen Buckheit, the NC Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center Director.
The CAOHC Initial and Refresher courses at the Summer Institute are taught by Workplace INTEGRA’s newly appointed Director of Audiology, Dr. George R. Cook.
The CAOHC Initial Course description is as follows:
Initial course: This course is approved by the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC) and is designed to help participants perform valid audiograms and develop hearing conservation programs according to OSHA 29 CRF 1910.95. Students who complete this 2 ½ day course are eligible to apply to CAOHC for certification as an Occupational Hearing Conservationist. The CAOHC application fee is included in the registration fee and is forwarded onto CAOHC upon successful completion of the course.
Course Faculty:
George R. Cook, AuD, CCCA, Workplace INTEGRA, Greensboro, NC
Content:
Anatomy and physiology of the ear; Federal and state regulations relating to noise exposure; audiometric testing techniques; employee education, hearing protection, audiogram review, and follow-up; recordkeeping.
Meeting Times:
Course begins Monday, July 26 at 8:00 am and ends Wednesday, July 28 at 11:00 am.
Credit:
3.0 ABIH (Category 4)
1.85 CEUs
Tuition for the Initial course is $575.
The July 27th CAOHC Refresher Course description is as follows:
Refresher course: This one-day course is designed to satisfy the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC) requirements for recertification. The certified Occupational Hearing Conservationist must complete an eight-hour refresher course within five years of the initial 20-hour course or previous eight-hour refresher course in order to be eligible for recertification.
Course Faculty:
George R. Cook, AuD, CCCA, Workplace INTEGRA, Greensboro, NC
Content:
Federal and state regulations, including hearing conservation programs and worker's compensation; review of audiometric techniques; audiogram review, referral, and employee follow-up; recordkeeping; role of the occupational hearing conservationist.
Meeting Times:
Course begins Tuesday, July 27 at 8:00 am and ends at 5:00 pm.
Credit:
1 ABIH (Category 4)
0.8 CEUs
Tuition for this Refresher course is $350.
To register online, click here.
You may also submit your registration via osherc@unc.edu. Please be sure to include the course title and date.
For further information on this course, contact the NC ERC office at osherc@unc.edu or call 919-962-2101 or toll free at 888-235-3320.
If you don’t know when your CAOHC certification is up, check here.
Source: The Hearing Review
Stafa, Switzerland - South African soccer fans' instrument of choice, the vuvuzela horn, was already controversial before the World Cup began there last week, with authorities concerned that their excessive volume could prevent people from hearing announcements should a stadium need to be evacuated. Now, new tests have shown that the instrument is so loud, it poses a more immediate health risk to fans and players, according to Hear the World, a global initiative by Phonak.
The long, plastic, trumpet-shaped vuvuzela was found to emit an ear-piercing noise of 127 decibel - louder than a lawnmower (90 decibels) and a chainsaw (100 decibels). Extended exposure at just 85 decibels puts people at a risk of permanent noise-induced hearing loss, and when subjected to 100 decibels or more, hearing damage can occur in just 15 minutes, says Phonak.
Rest of article:
http://www.hearingreview.com/insider/2010-06-17_07.asp
Source: Workplace INTEGRA Associate
May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. Your ears are very delicate, prolonged exposure to sound pressure levels above 85dBA will cause damage to your hearing. If you have ever been to a party or to a concert where loud music was played, you may have experienced Temporary Threshold Shift (TTS). This temporary loss of hearing can become permanent if exposure is done on a regular basis. If this happens, you will never hear fully again.
At Workplace INTEGRA, a large part of what we do is support the hearing conservation programs of workers exposed to noise levels in the jobs they perform day to day. May is a great month to look at the hearing conservation program at your company and ask these questions.
The answers listed are offered by Workplace INTEGRA. You certainly can look to other sources.
Q: Do I need a hearing conservation program at our company?
A: A noise survey will answer that question: Noise Survey
Q: I have a program, but have fallen behind in testing my employees, what can I do?
A: This method could be of service: Mobile Testing
Q: Can I do my own in-house hearing testing?
A: Here is an overview of an in-house hearing testing program: In-House Testing
Q: Where can I get audiometric testing equipment?
A Here is one source: Equipment
Q: Is there a software program that will get me off paper?
A: Here is one source: Audio Software
Q: We have a program; but how do I know my workers are wearing their hearing protection properly?
A: INTEGRAfit- fit testing for hearing protection devices.
Q: We have a program, but do not have access to a local or corporate physician/ audiologist to review my hearing tests, what can I do?
A: Workplace INTEGRA offers this service: Consulting
Q: We have or just started a hearing conservation program, how can I learn more?
A: Take a CAOHC certification course: Training
More information: http://www.asha.org/bhsm/
http://www.asha.org/aud/articles/hearingconservationintro.htm
Source: Workplace INTEGRA Associate
Regulations are employed to effect hearing conservation programs designed to protect persons from the injurious effects of noise exposure on hearing. Such regulations typically address long-term exposure to continuous noise as well as exposures to brief-duration impact or impulse noise. However, there is a noise exposure hazard that is often overlooked: arc flash hazard.
An arc flash is an explosion of electrical energy into the air from a short-circuiting electronic device. This can be caused by equipment malfunction, but can also be inadvertently caused when an employee working on or near an energized electrical panel accidentally contacts conductors or circuits. Quite often, arc flash incidents are inconsequential though in some cases the resulting plasma fireball can be lethal. While electricians are at increased risk, any person working on or near energized electrical equipment is at risk for arc flash induced injury.
W. Jon Wallace, CSP of Workplace Safety wrote an article on arc flash hazard which was published August 2005 in Occupational Health and Safety magazine. In that article Jon writes that “approximately 80 percent of all electrical injuries are burns that result from the electric arc flash and ignition of an employee’s flammable clothing. Arc flashes cause electrical equipment to explode, resulting in an arc-plasma fireball. Temperatures may exceed 35,000 degrees F (the surface of the sun is 9,000 degree F). These high temperatures cause rapid heating of surrounding air and extreme pressures, resulting in an arc blast. The arc blast probably will vaporize all solid copper conductors. Solid copper expands to 67,000 times its original volume when it is vaporized. In addition, measurements taken on a test mannequin during a laboratory arc flash detected sound levels of 141.5 decibels at 2 feet from the blast and pressure levels of 2,160 pounds per square foot in the immediate vicinity of the blast. An electric arc flash can ignite an employee’s flammable clothing, causing severe burns; the intense light of an arc flash can cause cataracts; the tremendous sound pressure may damage an employee’s hearing; and the pressure levels could knock an employee down. Also, flying shrapnel could result in injury or death.”
Arc flash hazards pose serious safety risks: lockout tag-out practices should be utilized when feasible. However, if electrical equipment must remain energized during maintenance then safe work practices are essential. OSHA has outlined these practices in 29 CFR 1910.311 through 1910.335. In addition, OSHA asked the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) to develop a standard addressing electrical safe work practices. The first NFPA 70E Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace was published in 1979 and was most recently updated in 2009. The two standards work hand-in-hand. 29 CFR 1910 provide much of the “shall” while NFPA 70E provides the “how.” OSHA does not enforce NFPA 70E as law as it has not been incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations. However, the OSHA PPE standard requires employers to perform a PPE analysis using the best means available and NFPA 70E is considered the consensus standard.
NFPA 70E requires a Flash Hazard Analysis to determine the flash protection boundary and the personal protective equipment those within the flash protection boundary should use. Five Hazard Risk Categories ranging from 0 (little to no risk) to 4 (extreme risk) are defined based on the level of protection necessary for a given job. According to Jon Wallace, only about 20% of electrical work is conducted above Category 1 and only about 10% is conducted above Category 2. The 2004 edition of NFPA 70E required hearing protection for Hazard Risk Categories 2 and higher. The 2009 edition requires hearing protection for all risk categories and with good reason: the sound pressure levels involved may rupture the eardrum, and the sheer decibel level of the blast wave can significantly and permanently cause hearing loss even if the eardrum does not rupture.
At what point will the earplugs ignite? NFPA 70E simply requires PPE be “Flame Resistant” for use in Categories 0 through 4. Flame Resistant is defined in 70E as “the property of a material whereby combustion is prevented, terminated, or inhibited following the application of a flaming or non-flaming source of ignition, with or without subsequent removal of the ignition source.” Interestingly, 70E does not specify a particular test for flame resistance, nor is there is an American standard for testing the flammability of hearing protectors. Brad Witt, Director of Hearing Conservation for Sperian Protection, stated that all of their hearing protectors are tested for Flame Resistance using a European ISO flammability standard, and that all of their hearing protectors meet the definition of Flame Resistant. Aearo Technologies, maker of E•A•R branded earplugs, submitted their E•A•R
® ARC plug™ (
http://www.eararcplug.com/eararcplug.com/) to independent laboratory ArcWear.com Testing & Consulting which determined in 2006 that this earplug will not ignite (p<1.6%) for exposures below 8 cal/cm
2 which is the limit of a category 2 exposure. The laboratory goes on to state that “beyond category 2, NFPA 70E requires a face shield or protective hood which will reduce the heat exposure of the earplug to unignitable levels. In conclusion if used in accordance with the other protective equipment as prescribed by OSHA 1910.269 and NFPA 70E, the E•A•R
® ARC plug™ should not represent an ignition hazard for the wearer.” It is important to consider the quality of the earplugs under consideration for use, particularly with regard to flexible polyurethane foam earplugs which have the potential to burn vigorously, emitting great heat and smoke, if not treated with flame retardants.
Will earplugs provide adequate hearing protection against arc flash noise? An overpressure of 141.5 dB Peak may rupture the eardrum and/or damage the structures of the middle and inner ear. Hearing protection will reduce this risk only to the extent that it is worn correctly. The problem, of course, is that we are asking workers to wear earplugs in environments that may be quiet hindering their ability to hear what is going on around them, hindering their ability to communicate. To address this, manufacturers have developed a variety of “passive level dependent” earplugs, passive meaning “non-electronic.” The idea is to allow the user to hear environmental noise/speech in low-noise environments but to significantly attenuate impulse noise. The ARC plug addresses this by building two earplugs into one – one end designed to provide greater attenuation in high-noise environments, the other end designed to produce less attenuation in low-noise working conditions. The red end provides a constant level of protection regardless of whether the noise is continuous or impulsive. The yellow end is designed to offer minimal attenuation during exposure to non-impulsive noise and significant attenuation in the presence of impulse noise. If worn properly, both ends of the ARC plug should offer adequate protection for a 141.5 dB Peak impulse noise. Hunters use a similar earplug in order to hear quiet sounds in the woods and yet attenuate rifle blast, and the military uses a camouflage version called the Combat Arms. If worn tightly, they work well. If not worn tightly, then actual attenuation may be little-to-none.
Jon Wallace recommends a simple guideline for compliance with NFPA 70E: require hearing protection for all employees who interact with energized equipment, including those who reset circuit breakers. This will include not only electricians, but mechanics and any equipment operator who locks out equipment. This simple rule will go a long way towards protecting the hearing health of workers during an arc flash event.