Hearing Protection

[alchemysa]

After 2 years of ignoring it I've finally accepted that the non-stop ringing in my ears is a serious problem. I have tinnitus and its no joking matter. Tinnitus has no proven cure and it drives some people to suicide. Tinnitus arrives slowly, you wont even notice it at first, but as you get older it gets worse. Mine is no doubt caused by not using ear protection. Every time you use any power equipment you are damaging your ears but I believe most of my damage has been caused by various forms of metal work. Banging on metal or using high pitched angle grinders in enclosed spaces is almost guaranteed to cause ear damage. (D*mn that steel hulled boat I built!). Anyway now I protect my ears even if I'm just banging nails into wood.

The most commonly suggested natural treatment to provide relief is Gingko Biloba tablets so I've started taking them. Apparently they can take up to three months to work, if at all. I'll let you know if I feel any improvement. The only 'medical' drug with any possible benefits seems to be Xanax, an anti-depressant. I haven't tried that yet.

No-one has natural immunity to ear damage. Human ears have not been able to evolve fast enough to handle the severe, sharp, constant noises we have learned to create in the last hundred years or so.

Always protect your ears. If you don't you will REALLY regret it later.

 

[harpoonalt]

If you've never used hearing protection, you owe it to yourself to try it. I use the radio headset to listen to music. Makes the hours of mowing go by faster, and is less tiring. I make it a habit to use it for any power equipment use. The thing you'll notice after using it is how loud things really are when you take them off. I keep pairs of the cheaper "non radio" ones at different places in the house where I might be working so there is no excuse not to pop them on to cut a quick board or other task.
I work in a manufacturing plant where hearing protection is required in certain areas. Thankfully, I now work in a quiet environment, but many older workers have hearing loss from the years of exposure to noise that some would find not that loud. Much more emphasis on health and safety these days. The thing to do is just get into the habit of using hearing protection and it becomes second nature. Just like seatbelts and safety glasses. The one time you don't use them will be the one time you need them. Trouble with the hearing thing is that once you realize there is a problem, it's too late! Good thread!

 

[newbury]

And of course if you want "sound" with good hearing protection there are numerous sources from the library etc. Books on tape, Learn a foreign language. listen to sat radio, run the forums thru an RSS feed and text to speech

 

[600rider]

In short "YES!" now the longer version, I use hearing protection every time I mow the yard or blow the snow out of the driveway period! I use hearing protection most of the time when I am working in my shop and should use it more often. I have worked in the sheet metal industry for the better part of 26 years with the last 10 years in a heavy fabrication steel shop building lcocmotives for General Electric Co. We are required to put HP in from the moment we walk in the door of the shop if we are caught without it we can be writen up as a safety infraction. We have our ears tested by the dispensory once a year to see if our hearing threshold has changed. The Co encourages us to take them home and use them there too ( not to many shops encourages you to steal from them) make it easier to use them at home if you have them arround. So I have a few diferent kinds I use I like the foam plugs brand name MAX made by Howard Leight and are 33 dbls as they have the best reduction qualities but if you are taking them out and putting them in alot they tend to get dirty, I work in maintainance and my hands don't remember what clean is so I have switched to the brand name E A R Push-ins they have a little foam ball on the end of a stem that you can push in with one hand and do not have to roll to get it in so dirty fingers don't touch the part that goes in your ear. I do not know what the reduction rating is on these but they work great and have a string attached so when you take them out you dont loose them. I even make my sons in-law wear them when they mow. and as someone said earlier you sure can hear the differance in noise when you take them out. Use them you will be glad to hear your grand kids later on.

 

[alltoys]

I see no one has talked about the injection molded ear plugs that are form fitted to ones ear. I work in a manufacturing plant with extreme noise conditions. Company paid half for them cost was $60 total. I find them to be the most comfortable especially wearing them 10 hours a day 6 days a week. There is a small nub in the center of the ear plug when removed you can hear normal voice but installed a full 100% sound muffling. I get a new pair every year a small price to pay for hearing protection.

My son also uses this type of ear plug when riding his Cafe style motorbike with a full face helmet. Sound from the bike seems to get louder in that type of helmet plus he uses them for cutting the grass.

 

[Maine_Polack]

I purchased a set of Peltor Digital radio/muffs. Find them very frustrating. I purchased Peltor cause I can interchange them with the ones on my hard hat, and they are a decent brand name.

Anyway.....the reception for me is lousy. I do live in the country, but have no reception problems on home radios. With the Peltors however, a slight movement of my head just changes the reception dramatically. Very difficult to listen. The cold weather helps marginally.

Called Peltor a while ago out of complete frustration, and they said that there were some manufactured with a faulty wire in them. Sent them away, and received a new, (so they said. I couldn't tell), pair. Absolutely no diff.

Anyone else have good reception on home radios, and poor on headphones?

My children purchased, for me, an ipod type gadget. It is also a radio. When used with the included ear buds, the reception is 100% better. I have trouble using the ear buds, but other headphones don't work as well. The buds are also the antenna. So now if on machinery, I use the earbuds, and put the Peltors over my ears also. Still have trouble keeping the buds in, but it is a vast improvment over the radio in the Peltors.

 

[cisco]

NIOSH counsels a derating of hearing protectors by a factor that corresponds to available real-world data. Specifically, NIOSH recommends that the labeled NRRs be derated as follows: Earmuffs - Subtract 25% from the manufacturer's labeled NRR,
Formable earplugs - Subtract 50% from the manufacturer's labeled NRR. It's real hard, in the "real world", to get much more than 34 dBA of hearing protection with BOTH decent fitting muffs and plugs.
I wear muffs (Stihl) with most loud tasks (chainsaw, table saw, target practice, etc) except hunting. My 7mm probably accounts for the hearing loss at 4000Hz I have. For those wondering about the Fed. guidelines for when hearing conservation measures (e.g., plugs, muffs) are mandatory, it's at 8 hours of exposure to 90dBA noise, 4 hours to 95dbA, and ..... well, you get it, every 5 dB increase diminishes the allowed interval by 50%. Most industries require dual protectors above 105 dB exposures, and 115 dB is the maximum allowed continuous noise in most enviroments, regardless of time involved.
So, curious about levels, I placed a sound pressure meter (Radioshack) at my ear level while sitting on my Kubota L3400 - at idle (900 rpm) it was 76 dB (TWA, slow response), and at 2700 rpm (standard for 540 pto rpm) it was 92 dB. Not bad, and my muffs obviously suffice - I've ~ 750 hours of seat time in 5 years.
Reason I responded to this post was the reliance by some on another noise source for entertainment while mowing, or whatever. Think about it. If your tractor is pushing 90dB into your ears, and you've very very good muffs (say, 30 dB "real world" protection), then 60dB is getting to your ears from the tractor. Fine, but how loud do you need to play the radio or ipod phones to appreciate the music - that is added to the 60dB "floor" of noise going through the muffs from your tractor. Now, human conversation is at about 55-60 dB, but is not usually in true quiet, or even close - the average "quiet" room in a city is at about 30-35db. So, most of us expect ~ 25-30 dB of sound ABOVE the background noise in order to converse with others. What do you expect of your music - my kids, given how they play the home sound system, would seem to expect more like 50dB above background. So, add 50dB to a 60dB background, and you've got problems......
Basically, be careful about how far you crank up the volume in your amplified headphones.

 

[Maine_Polack]

The Peltors i purchased have a limit to how loud they will go. I think it is 82 db.

 

[Hematite]

I'm glad for this thread. I used the ear muffs today while mowing and I was surprised how much more quiet it was. The was the first time I ever used them for mowing. This thread has been a good influence.

 

[mjncad]

For giggles I used both the plugs and muffs at the same time while mowing today. It was so much more quiet and pleasant. I just wish the muffs didn't make my ears so blasted sore after 3+ hours.