Hearing Protection

Protecting your staff's hearing is balancing adequate sound protection while not undermining natural hearing. Hearing, along with our other five senses, acts as a first defence to alert us of our surroundings and potential danger. In a factory environment, this includes colleagues' warnings, inconsistent machinery sounds, forklift beeping, and fire alarms, not to mention instructions.

Hearing loss has a huge impact on quality of life, so finding the most sound-reductive hearing protection is the only suitable solution. This, however, may be putting your staff at risk.

Earplugs or Earmuffs?

Ensuring hearing protection does not cause contamination risks for your production site is the typical decider between earplugs and earmuffs.

Earplugs designed for the food industry are corded, blue, and MD, which means they will be detected in the unlikely event of them falling into production.

Due to their size, earmuffs are unlikely to be misplaced. However, they can be difficult to clean, resulting in potential contamination risks.

Neither earplugs nor earmuffs are unsuitable for the industry, but they do require training for staff to ensure they adhere to your protocols to prevent contamination and ensure compliance.

Other considerations include the long-term cost, compliance visibility, and classification rating and comfort.

How do you find the right level of protection?

It all comes down to the decibel levels within your food processing environment. Using a dedicated sound level meter is recommended to give you an accurate reading. Apps can be used on mobile devices. It’s advisable to take a few readings at different times to ensure you record all machinery in action.

If your readings are over 85dB, Your staff will likely require hearing protection as constant exposure above this can cause hearing damage.

Use your guide below to confirm which hearing protection level will provide adequate protection for your staff.