A Tester to Evaluate the Correct Placement of Earplugs

The use of hearing protection devices is one possible way of reducing the negative impact of noise on hearing. However, it is important to keep in mind that only properly used hearing protection devices provide adequate hearing protection. The aim of this article is to describe a newly developed tes...

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Autores principales: Kozlowski, Emil, Mlynski, Rafal, Morzynski, Leszek, Swidzinski, Adam
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9325133/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35886333
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148482
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author Kozlowski, Emil
Mlynski, Rafal
Morzynski, Leszek
Swidzinski, Adam
author_facet Kozlowski, Emil
Mlynski, Rafal
Morzynski, Leszek
Swidzinski, Adam
author_sort Kozlowski, Emil
collection PubMed
description The use of hearing protection devices is one possible way of reducing the negative impact of noise on hearing. However, it is important to keep in mind that only properly used hearing protection devices provide adequate hearing protection. The aim of this article is to describe a newly developed tester to verify the correct placement of earplugs in the ear canal. This tester was developed using easily accessible and low-cost components. It implements the real-ear attenuation at threshold (REAT) method by which the sound attenuation of hearing protection devices is determined. The headphones with a greater low-frequency attenuation value were selected for use in the tester. The results of the sound attenuation measurement performed with the use of the tester did not differ by more than 5 dB compared to the measurements performed with the use of the Norsonic NOR838 system dedicated to this purpose. The developed tester is considered to be a device that will obtain reliable sound attenuation values. Thus, it can also be used as a device with which the correct placement of earplugs in the ear canal can be assessed.
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spelling pubmed-93251332022-07-27 A Tester to Evaluate the Correct Placement of Earplugs Kozlowski, Emil Mlynski, Rafal Morzynski, Leszek Swidzinski, Adam Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The use of hearing protection devices is one possible way of reducing the negative impact of noise on hearing. However, it is important to keep in mind that only properly used hearing protection devices provide adequate hearing protection. The aim of this article is to describe a newly developed tester to verify the correct placement of earplugs in the ear canal. This tester was developed using easily accessible and low-cost components. It implements the real-ear attenuation at threshold (REAT) method by which the sound attenuation of hearing protection devices is determined. The headphones with a greater low-frequency attenuation value were selected for use in the tester. The results of the sound attenuation measurement performed with the use of the tester did not differ by more than 5 dB compared to the measurements performed with the use of the Norsonic NOR838 system dedicated to this purpose. The developed tester is considered to be a device that will obtain reliable sound attenuation values. Thus, it can also be used as a device with which the correct placement of earplugs in the ear canal can be assessed. MDPI 2022-07-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9325133/ /pubmed/35886333 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148482 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kozlowski, Emil
Mlynski, Rafal
Morzynski, Leszek
Swidzinski, Adam
A Tester to Evaluate the Correct Placement of Earplugs
title A Tester to Evaluate the Correct Placement of Earplugs
title_full A Tester to Evaluate the Correct Placement of Earplugs
title_fullStr A Tester to Evaluate the Correct Placement of Earplugs
title_full_unstemmed A Tester to Evaluate the Correct Placement of Earplugs
title_short A Tester to Evaluate the Correct Placement of Earplugs
title_sort tester to evaluate the correct placement of earplugs
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9325133/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35886333
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148482
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