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hearing loss 3

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engeeneer

engeeneer

Specifier/Regulator
Sep 1, 2013
23
hello

pubmed is full of articles claiming that factory workers working in noisy environments lose irreversibly their hearing

hearing protection doesn't seem to help much

I am extremely concerned about this and I would like to know from people in the industry, how noisy the engineering work environment can be

are there factories/plants that are less noisy?
for example chemical/pharmaceutical/cosmetics factories are almost noiseless?
what about food factories?
are you concerned about hearing loss? what do you do about it?

thanks
 
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I am particularly interested for a maintenance engineering career, but I wonder if there are other options in the general engineering field, without noise hazards
how much of the time of a maintenance engineer is spent on the noisy factory? or maybe most of this role involves work when the machines are shut down? can you give me some insight please?
 
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while it seems logical that hearing protection should help, are there actually any research proving that they really prevent hearing loss? and in which extend?

because I read a meta-analysis from Cochrane in Pubmed, where they said the evidence isn't enough
and another one research that despite hearing protection, there were hearing loss among workers
 
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I think it's difficult to seperate hearing loss due to exposure to noise and just plain old growing old.

Good luck,
Latexman

Technically, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.
 
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What I do is always wear my hearing protection. When I worked in a forging plant with hammers and upsetters, I wore earmuffs. When I worked around machines I would wear ear plugs. My ears have probably been better protected in the workplace than at home. I have been working over 35 years and I still pass the hearing tests! Wear your PPE!
 
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I worked in a marine exhaust shop for five years, with hammering and grinding going on all the time.
I also conducted about a hundred sea trials of our product, each comprising a couple of hours in a closed, hot engineroom with a pretty big Diesel or two working at full power.
I was careful to use the hearing protection provided, and have suffered no noticeable hearing loss.

That said, most ear protection is uncomfortable, especially when you are hot and sweaty, so there is a strong temptation to remove it.

A friend of mine worked in a blow-molding shop, equipped with a huge noisy shredder to immediately recycle parts that weren't quite right. The old timers who worked there didn't like wearing ear protection because it was uncomfortable, and asserted that they got used to the noise after a few months on the job. I.e., they lost some hearing, but were too ignorant to realize what was going on.


On a somewhat related note, I worked in a Ni-Cd battery shop where part of the battery plates were sandblasted, and the workers had gotten out of the habit of wearing the supplied respirators, so they were breathing metal dust that is an alleged carcinogen. I had a long talk with the most belligerent of the bunch, who asserted that if he got sick, the company would pay his hospital bills until he got well. I couldn't get him to understand that if he got sick, the company would indeed pay his medical bills, until he died. So I threatened to fire him on the spot if I ever caught him without a respirator on his face again, and I told him to go talk to his union rep to see how much the union would do to get his job back. ... which was precisely nothing; it was in the contract, and a matter of black letter law, that refusal to wear provided PPE is grounds for dismissal. Whenever I saw him after that, he would wave and point to the respirator on his face. I doubt that management kept up the pressure; they bitched about the cost of the respirator filters.


Back to your concern; the research has been done, and there's plenty of anecdotal evidence to support it.
In the US, a number of government agencies require that appropriate PPE be provided, at no cost to the worker, but enforcement is somewhat less than universal.

If you want to do the world a favor, become a PPE designer and make it more comfortable to wear.

In fairness, I should point out that in addition to chronic hazards like carcinogen exposure and hearing loss, there are probably enough acute hazards to provde a thousand ways to die in any given factory, so you should take all appropriate precautions, use common sense, read up on what you're doing, and especially, pay attention in the workplace, and you'll have a fair chance of getting old and cranky like me, and dying of something other than a workplace hazard.

I should also point out that making a fuss about hazards and stuff like that during an interview will exclude you from the job, unless that is the job.








Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
 
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I once made the mistake of asking if OSHA had ever paid a visit after the shop tour during an interview. In hindsight, it wasn't a mistake... it would have been a dangerous place to work.

“Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.”
-Dalai Lama XIV
 
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Latexman:

It's not really that hard when you have the lateral blast from an M-14 flash suppressor hit your ear from three feet away with no protection. [nosmiley]

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 
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Well, our lab downstairs measures around 65 dBC ambient and we pumped up to 75 dBC into it during acoustic sensitivity testing of our product (for which I wore earplugs).

I've also had to do an on wing inspection of a store on the inboard pylon of a Harrier with the engines running - that was noisy and I was wearing combo ear plugs & head set.

Posting guidelines faq731-376 (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​
 
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Well, one big difference today is that people have kW-class amps and speakers in their cars, not unlike carrying what used to called "Tower of Power," a rock concert speaker stack in your backseat. I'm tempted to look into selling some really decent hearing aids for when those guys hit middle age.

TTFN
faq731-376
7ofakss

Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529
 
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Maybe it was the rock concerts. Aerosmith, The Who, ZZ Top, AC/DC, Black Crows, Lynard Skynard, and others.

Good luck,
Latexman

Technically, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.
 
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I've worked with acoustics for many years, and in noisy environments off and on in that time. Hearing protection does work /if you wear it/. Even if you have already damaged your ears it will help prevent further degradation. If you forget to put it on at the start of the shift, put it on as soon as you remember, it will still reduce the long term damage. If your ears hurt or go numb then you are damaging them and need to put hearing protection on pronto. Not all hearing protection is equivalent, hopefully somebody has checked what type is appropriate for that particular environment. As a somewhat technical aside, A weighting is a stupid habit that people have got into when measuring noise. It filters out too much of the low frequency noise that is present in industrial settings.

If you don't like the company supplied protectors talk to your OSHA people, find what spec they are recommending, and go to a shop and try some on until you find a comfortable set. Hearing aids cost a damn sight more than muffs.




Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
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Hearing loss due to exposure is a fact. There have been numerous studies and most point to the same things....if you are exposed to high noise levels for long periods of time, you will lose hearing.

Google it.
 
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Per WebMD, "Advanced age is the most common cause of hearing loss. One out of three people aged 65-74 has some level of hearing loss. After age 75, that ratio goes up to one out of every two people."

Good luck,
Latexman

Technically, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.
 
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I have worked in an environmental noise dept before, doing surveys of (mainly aerospace) factories. The problem with ear defenders is normally that they aren't worn. Plugs are the best, if they are comfortable. More than 85dB(A) all day is like sitting on a tube train all your life. Wearing ear defenders, or plugs kind of shuts you out from the world. Having said that, I now work in a quiet office, where most people are plugged into something.

- Steve
 
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I have worked many years in plants, I have used hearing protection when I need to but not all the time. Most plants should have ear plug stations. if not buy a box and keep them close.

But yes use them!!.. when your working in a high pressure steam plant running turbines it can get pretty noisy. or when a relief goes off when you don't expect it..do you hear what Im saying......what! I said did you hear what Im saying
 
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> GregLocock (Automotive)
> 7 Oct 13 20:42
> "hearing protection doesn't seem to help much"
>
> cite?

"Noise attenuation ratings of hearing protection under field conditions were consistently lower than the ratings provided by the manufacturers."
"There is very low quality evidence that the better use of hearing protection devices as part of HLPPs reduces the risk of hearing loss"
 
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