Hearing protection: Making the right choice is essential

There are many types of hearing protection which are suitable for different situations and if you work in or are passing through high noise level areas you need the right level of protection. It is important to strike the right balance between the need to adequately protect your hearing from dangerous noise while not compromising your ability to hear and communicate. The below chart gives you an overview of which uvex earplug may be suitable based on the noise level.

The short answer: noise level – SNR value

Noise levels in the workplace must be measured first in order to determine what level of protection is required. The Health and Safety professional or external qualified service providers should conduct tests using approved test equipment. The continuous noise level and, if necessary, the peak emission noise level are measured, enabling a noise profile to be recorded. Appropriate hearing protection can then be selected using the SNR method.

The objective when choosing suitable hearing protection is to achieve an effective residual noise level of between 70 dB and 80 dB for the wearer. If the protection level is too high (over-protection), this can result in the inability to communicate and the risk of not hearing critical messages, instructions or signals.

Example:  Noise level 100 dB – uvex xact-fit, SNR 26 dB = 74 dB