Maintain Situational Awareness with Innovative Hearing Protection Devices

Maintain Situational Awareness with Innovative Hearing Protection Devices According to NIOSH,( National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) nearly 30 million workers are exposed to hazardous noise on the job and an additional 9 million are at risk for hearing loss from other agents such as solvents and metals. It is found that noise-induced hearing loss is one of the most common occupational diseases and the second most self-reported occupational illness or injury. High-noise environments potentially are dangerous to the employees working in them.

Historically, accidents related to these types of high-noise industries often could have been avoided if the worker had been more aware of his or her surroundings. Consequently, enabling workers to maintain situational awareness absolutely is critical to their safety.

In any high noise environment, maintaining the ability to communicate must not contribute to be reason behind occupational hearing loss. In high noise working environments, communication is extremely difficult, and it therefore becomes even more important for employers to ensure that there are adequate protection devices to correct this issue, considering the fact that the need to communicate is not going to change. Without being forced to remove their hearing protection, workers need to have a way to effectively communicate with others in the workplace. There are new hearing protection technologies that are changing this by addressing the reasons why workers remove their hearing protection.

Noise suppression technologies synonymous with products used in extreme working conditions now are being combined with speech enhancement technology and embedded in smart ear plug and ear muffs to deliver a highly functional hearing protection solution to workers in extreme working conditions. These technologies enable clear and safe communication in extremely high noise environments via face-to-face communication, two-way radio or Bluetooth through a cell phone without having to remove their hearing protection.

There are modern technology electronic ear plugs that isolate and enhance speech and suppress dangerous noise to a safe level so you can hear speech and stay protected in high noise environments. The easy to operate control unit can be worn discreetly around the neck or in a pocket resembling an MP3 player. These new innovative technologies reduce background noise to safe levels while allowing certain sounds through, enabling situational awareness thereby facilitating all forms of communication.

These innovative ear hearing protection devices and hi-tech ear muffs are definitely here to stay, as they are one of the most highly needed protection devices in most industrial workplaces. Be sure of what you want, and do complete online research. Spend a few minutes analyzing the different types protection to decide on what kind of ear protection is right for you.

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