Earplug & Noise Reduction Ratings Explained

The human body has five main senses, all of which are equally as important to take care of in your day-to-day life as the next. These include sight, smell, taste, touch and of course your hearing. Over time, with age, and if not taken care of properly, most of us will experience losses of some kind with one or several of the senses.

Hearing Loss Is One of the Most Common

Luckily, there are many ways in which you can help protect your hearing. These can include buying hearing protection, avoiding prolonged periods of time in overly noisy environments and even eating a balanced and nutritional diet.

Why is Taking Care of Your Hearing is Important?

Not only can experiencing hearing loss be frustrating when trying to communicate with others, watching a TV show or listening to the radio, but it can also have other health implications such as dizzy spells, nausea and loss of balance.

It is difficult to reverse the damage done to your hearing, so you must protect it as best as possible. If you have any questions about hearing protection or taking care of your hearing in general, you should talk to an audiologist.

Why Should You Use Noise Reduction Devices?

The human ears are only designed to withstand a certain decibel (dBs) level and you cannot withstand extremely loud one-off noises or prolonged periods of time in noisy environments without protection. If you don’t use a hearing protection device with the correct noise reduction rating (NRR) then you are opening yourself up to a potential loss of hearing in the future. So, it is important to know the noise levels of your environment and the correct noise reduction ratings you require on your hearing protection devices.

What Are Noise Reduction Ratings (NRR)?

In short, the noise reduction rating on a hearing protection device relates to measuring how effective that particular device is at reducing harmful noises within the environment to a safe level for a prolonged period of time. It is for this reason that when selecting the correct hearing protection device for a task, one of the fundamental requirements of the device that you should look for is the noise reduction rating. Without this information, even if it fits you perfectly, is comfortable, and works in line with the rest of your personal protective equipment (PPE) its protective capability will be unknown.

Safe Levels and Exposure Time to Noise

If you can avoid staying in a noisy environment for long periods of time then this is of course optimal, but not always possible. Some people work in noisy environments all day long such as in factories, construction sites, airports or working with machinery and power tools. It may not always be a cause for concern, as long as you are aware of the safe decibel levels and exposure times that your working environment has, and that you or your company provide and use the correctly rated hearing protection devices for the task.

These decibel levels relate to the noise reduction rating that you will find on equipment, such as earplugs, so they are useful to be aware of. This is important to help you find the correct noise protection equipment for the tasks that you will be completing, to ensure you are protected. The noise reduction rating can be found on the labels of the devices, and will tell you which range of decibels they are suitable for:

• Zero decibels-60dBs: These levels of noise don’t typically cause any hearing damage and range from the softest sound that a human can hear to the normal levels of a spoken conversation between two people.
• 60dBs-80dBs: These levels are again not typically dangerous, and you would most commonly find them when standing next to a washing machine or listening to traffic in a city. It may not be comfortable to work in these noisy conditions and you might decide to use hearing protection just to keep the level of quiet down and drown out some of the unwanted background noise.
• 80dBs-85dBs: This level of noise is now where your hearing can become damaged if exposed for more than two hours without protection. The level of noise is that of lawnmowers and leaf blowers
• 95dBs-110dBs: At these levels of excessive decibel noise, potential damage can occur within as little as just under one hour of exposure at 95db with no protection to just a few minutes if you are closer to 110dBs. Loud motorcycles can give out 95dBs and someone shouting or a dog barking in your year can reach impressively up to 110dBs.

Once you exceed these levels you need to be extremely careful as 120dBs and above noises are often quick bursts of noise such as sirens or firecrackers.

There is a lot you can do to help protect your hearing. To learn more about protecting yourself call Adirondack Audiology at (888) 347-5899.