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Show Page 20 HILL TOP TIMES April 27, 1979 to all employees available conservation program Hearing protection and are about equally effective in attenuating sound and protecting hearing. Triple flange and 1 plugs are available here. To be most effective, they must be fitted and properly inserted. Grab the ear with the opposite hand to straighten the canal. The 1 is twisted rearward so that the tab rotates to the rear of the head and is then pushed in with the thumb and index finger to achieve a tight fit. The triple flange plug is inserted directly into the canal. Plugs should be clean and in good condition. (EDITOR'S NOTE: A comprehensive hearing program is available to all employees of Hill AFB, military and civilian. Oi'iices are in the Bioenvironmental Engineering Ot'i'ice of the USAF Hospital. Hill, for military personnel, and in the Occupational Medicine Services (OMS), civilian dispensary, building 173. for civilian personnel. By Capt. Marie Mikkelsen The goal of the Hearing Conservation Program is to preserve employees hearing. Hearing loss is not painful or immediately noticeable to the individual, so it is frequently difficult to motivate the employee d to take care of it. The important point is that of use is ear loss protection. hearing preventable through HEARING IS a life-lon- g asset, used every day on the job and at home. It is necessary for talking with family and friends, watching television, enjoying music, and many other listening activities. It is well worth protecting by taking the minute to wear proper ear protection. Hearing Conservation is important because excessive noise can cause permanent hearing loss. It is a slow gradual process so it is often not recognized by a person until considerable damage has already been done. Once noise has destroyed hair cells of the cochlea in the inner ear, there is no known medical or surgical procedure that can restore an individual's hearing. V-5- V-5- Supervisors have an important responsibility to enforce use of ear protection in noise areas and to set a good example about its use. It is also the supervisor's responsibility to determine which employees are routinely exposed to hazardous noise and should be included in the monitoring audiometry program. This should be kept current. EAR PROTECTION ACTUALLY lets the wearer hear speech better in a noisy situation. Plugs cut out surrounding noise, but let through the lower frequency sound of speech. Sunglasses have an action similar to action of ear plugs. The glasses let you see better by cutting down glare and ear protection lets you hear better by cutting down distortion of the surrounding noise. Monitoring audiometry is designed to catch any threshold shifts, any worsening of hearing, early, before it adds up to a noise-induce- permanent hearing loss. HEARING LOSS is not noticeable to the individual in its early stages; therefore, annual tests are needed to catch any changes. If shifts are noted, a noise exposed employee will be brought back for follow-u- p hearing tests to determine if the loss is stable or progressive. If no shifts are noted, the individual is placed back into annual monitoring. Generally, noise damage is first noted in high frequencies around 4 K Hz and does not affect speech frequencies (500 2K Hz) until the individual has already lost considerable hearing. TO EFFECTIVELY MONITOR an employee, it is necessary to know what the hearing was when he or she began working in noise. Therefore, it is essential that employees entering a noise hazardous area be sent for a reference hearing test before being assigned to a job in that noise area . WE CAN PREVENT hearing loss or keep it from getting worse by wearing ear protection in hazardous noise areas as designated by the Bioenvironmental Engineering Services. A decibel (dB) is a unit of sound measurement and sustained noise over 84 dB can potentially damage hearing. Regulation requires use of ear protection at all times when noise sources are operating, regardless of exposure duration. The ear protection must be on your person anytime you are in a designated hazardous noise area. EAR MUFFS AND EAR PLUGS are the chief types of ear (unnett, -- please!! Noise is a nuisance. It's also a health hazard. Besides the clear risk of hearing loss, noise may contribute to heart and circulatory disease and may aggravate existing disease. Noise can also affect the unborn and the development of language skills in children, and can cause extreme emotions and behavior. More information is available in a free publication, Noise : A Health Problem. For a copy, write to the Office of Noise Abatement, Environmental Protection Agency, AW-47Division of State and Local Programs, Washington, t,C. 20460. 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