Hearing Protection – Equipment and Manufacturers

Hearing Protection Equipment and Manufacturers

Noise is produced when something vibrates. The vibrations then, in turn, vibrate the air creating sound waves. Sound and noise waves travel through air. The air can actually vibrate objects and recreate the noise. This is why you can hear sounds through a hollow core door. The door actually recreates the vibrations. Have you ever noticed that you can't hear outside noise when inside a concrete block building or a basement? This is because the air vibrations have a really tough time vibrating the concrete or block walls. Since they don't vibrate, you don't hear sounds or noise. Thus to stop noise you either have to eliminate the air pathway to your ear or increase the mass around your ears.

To block noise from getting into your ear, it is best to try to stop the air from getting to your eardrum. This is best achieved by using ear plugs or ear muffs of some sort. If you travel much by airplane and see those ground crew people who work around aircraft, you see them all wear ear muffs. Some probably have ear plugs installed as well.

Several companies make industrial quality ear protection that is available for homeowners. They actually publish a noise reduction rating on each ear protection product. This rating tells you how much noise the product will block. The tighter the fit inside your ear, the more air it can block. This is why the expandable foam ear plugs have the highest noise reduction rating. You can purchase some very inexpensive foam ear plugs with a rating as high as 31. They are sold by North Safety Products. High quality ear protection devices are inexpensive. Don't try to save $5 or so on a product you might see at a discount store. Do NOT buy any ear protection devices that do not have a Noise Reduction Rating printed clearly on the packaging. If you buy products that are not labeled, you have no idea how effective they might be. Call these two manufacturers. I know for a fact that they both make products that are labeled. You will not be disappointed in their quality!

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