Listen up!
By John Asta of
Can workers protect their hearing and stay
alert to workplace hazards? Yes, they can, with the proper hearing protection
equipment, safety training and situational-awareness.
Pilots, soldiers, and police officers
know how important situational awareness is to their survival on the job. But
from a general health and safety perspective, it has a more universal
application. One Occupational Safety online piece describes
it this way:
"Situational awareness
means being aware of the surrounding conditions in your immediate work area and
recognizing and dealing with unsafe work conditions before they become an
issue…"
The Elements of
Situational Awareness
The OSHA briefing highlighted the
importance of recognizing 5 levels of situational awareness employees tend to
exhibit while interacting with and reacting to their work environment:
- They can be tuned out.
- The mind drifts and the body works on automatic. Tuned-out workers are accidents waiting to happen.
- They can be in a relaxed awareness state.
- The worker is relaxed but paying attention to any potential dangers on the job. This state leads to a higher level of efficiency and the forestalling of fatigue.
- They can be focused and fully aware.
- The worker may have an inordinate fear of heights or of enclosed spaces.
- The focused state is fine for self-preservation, but can be exhausting and lead to the fatigue that results in accidents.
- They can go on high alert.
- Survival instincts and training kick in.
- The worker becomes hyperaware of the situation. This is where the best training programs result in appropriate responses by the worker.
- They can be in the "senseless" mode.
- The worker is unconscious or falls asleep on the job. In either case, the brain has stopped doing what it needs to do to react to the danger or hazard.
Employers should keep the foregoing in
mind in their employee training.
Hearing Protection
Complicates Matters
So in the psychology of natural
adaptability of workers to their surroundings, Situational Awareness is another
tool in keeping them safe. Sometimes, however, the need for hearing protection
equipment can be a challenge. Traditional noise-cancelling headsets and
ear plugs tend to further isolate workers from their environment. There
is a balance between situational awareness and hearing protection that is
difficult to maintain especially in extreme environments with very
high noise levels where dual protection may be required.
Recently, there has been a trend
towards hearing protection with a built-in situational awareness feature.
The logic being that equipping workers with hearing protection without
situational awareness is like giving them eye protection that blinds them or
gloves that do not allow them to hold and grab items.
Where Dual Hearing
Protection is Warranted
Managers at noisy facilities where tank
cleaning, motor run-ups or especially loud tools like jackhammers are present
face insurmountable noise engineering challenges.
Often, however, hearing protection
equipment--and in extremely high noise environments--dual protection will be
the only means to achieve the optimum hearing conservation. OSHA
regulations for general industry do not mandate dual protection. However, in
mining operations governed by MSHA, noise exposures over 105 dBA require dual
protection and NIOSH has weighed in by recommending dual protection
for any noise exposure over 100 dBA.
Disadvantages of
Conventional Dual Protection
Conventional dual protection, however,
does pose the problem of reduced Situational Awareness. Wearing earplugs and
earmuffs together isolates the wearer. The worker cannot communicate easily or
hear warning signals. (See this Industrial Safety & Hygiene News online
article on the pitfalls of over protection as well as how to balance the
need for sound protection vs. situational awareness.) For those that
require it, there are some products available that combine 360-degree
Situational Awareness with dual protection and also allow for various types of
communication.
High-Noise
Communication Solutions
In those environments where dual
protection is neither mandated nor necessary, there are high-noise
communication solutions. The solutions allow:
- Face-to-face communication
- Communication over short range intercom technologies
- Long range Communication When connected to a two-way radio or cell phone
- Max noise output into the listener's ear at a safe level (82dBA) in a noise environment of 105dBA
- A 360-degree binaural hearing experience for optimum situational awareness
Sensear has all of the above. Check out
our line of smart earplugs and smart headsets. Looking for a headset
that has all the above features? Check out the top of the line SM1P
recently released by Sensear.
By John Asta of
Contact Us at RCS Communications
800-767-7384 support@rcs.info
Louisville, Lexington,
Central Kentucky & Southern
Indiana
