The Family Handyman – September 2019

FAMILYHANDYMAN.COM SEPTEMBER 2019 25

EARMUFFS:

Subtract 25 percent

from the manufac-

turer’s labeled NRR.

FORMABLE

EARPLUGS:

Subtract 50 per-

cent from the

manufacturer’s

labeled NRR.

ALL OTHER

EARPLUGS:

Subtract 70 per-

cent from the

manufacturer’s

labeled NRR.

DIY & Your Hearing

3 Things You Must Know

1. Most power tools do damage
   OSHA requires hearing protection for extended exposure to
   noise at 85 decibels or above, and most power tools, lawn
   mowers and chain saws are louder than that.
   Vickie Tuten, a member of the American Speech-Language-
   Hearing Association and an audiologist with the U.S. Army, offers a
   rule of thumb—if someone walked up to you and started talking
   while you were working, would you have to turn the tool off to hear
   them? If so, there’s a good chance it’s hazardous and you should
   be wearing hearing protection.


2. Plugs and muffs don’t work as labeled
   How much hearing protection you need depends on two factors—
   how loud your equipment is and how long you’re exposed to the
   noise. Tuten says both earmuffs and earplugs work as long as you
   wear them properly. With earmuffs, make sure the temple of your
   protective goggles (or anything else) doesn’t break their seal. And
   with earplugs, be sure to insert them according to the instructions
   on the package.
   When you purchase earmuffs or earplugs, they’ll have a noise
   reduction rating (NRR) on the package. But you can’t simply sub-
   tract that number from the decibels you’re exposed to. “That’s a
   number derived under lab specifications with an expert fitter,”
   Tuten says. NIOSH (the National Institute for Occupational Safety
   and Health) recommends that the labeled NRRs (Noise Reduction
   Ratings) be adjusted for real-world use as follows:

HOME SMARTSI HEALTH

To increase your protection, you can wear earplugs and earmuffs
together. Results vary depending on the products you choose, but
expect four to eight dB of additional protection.

3. Every exposure does some damage
   Tuten says a lot of people believe that a one-time exposure to loud
   noise doesn’t matter. “That’s a false sense of security,” she says.
   “Damage actually does often occur. It’s a cumulative kind of
   damage.” Even if you’ve already lost some hearing, with protection
   you can preserve the hearing you have left. “If you can keep the
   loss at a mild level, that’s a win,” Tuten says.

DECIBEL SCALE

Tool Decibels Needed Noise

Reduction

CHAIN SAW 110 32

MITER SAW 109 31

BAND SAW 104 26

HEDGE TRIMMER 103 25

PRESSURE WASHER 100 22

TABLE SAW 93 15

AIR COMPRESSOR 92 14

Fast Fact

The decibel scale is logarithmic, so,

for example, 85 dB is 15 times louder

than 70 dB. Many power tools are

loud enough to damage your hearing.

Here are a few examples from the

University of Florida’s Hearing

Conservation Program: