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What did you say? Heh? Speak up.
How many of us have a grandmother who refuses to wear a hearing aid, yet wants to be part of every conversation? She’s convinced you are talking about her if she can’t hear you.
Of course, you think you are shouting, and she asks, “Why are you whispering?”
This often comic scene is eventually replaced by a more serious situation. 'Hie loss or deterioration of one’s hearing can be a gradual process, sometimes painless and irreversible, and not noticed by the affected person until it is too late.
Hearing damage is particularly prominent in many noisy industrial settings where it could be prevented. Nearly one-third of all industrial workers may suffer permanent hearing loss from being exposed to the federally mandated “safe” noise level, according to a 1982 estimate performed by the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety. Annually, in the over-50 age group, nearly two mil-’ lion workers are estimated to suffer aural loss due to job-related conditions.
Annual disability claims for hearing loss are in the millions of dollars nationally and are increasing by about 20 percent each year, according to some estimates.
What about the hearing protection devices, for example, earplugs, that are designed to protect the worker in a noisy environment?
According to some research performed by human factors engineers (the authorities on human-machine interface), certain earplugs manufactured and advertised as effective guardians of an employee’s hearing in an industrial setting may be ineffective if not fitted or worn properly.
An article in the May edition of Sound and Vibration notes the work of Virginia Tech human factors engineer John Casali and his graduate student Siu-Tong Lam. Their combined findings, according to the article, suggest that comprehensive user instruction concerning hearing protection fittings is “critical to the success of protection” given by a manufacturer’s product.
When the product is tested by the hearing protection manufacturers or independent laboratories before it goes on the market, conditions are nearly ideal. Quite often the person who is being tested is
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