DEVELOPMENT OF THE SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION METHOD OF HEARING PROTECTORS

Abstract

Exposure to high sound levels causes hearing loss. Using hearing protection devices is one of the ways to prevent exposure to loud noises, reduce noise-induced hearing loss and prevent other problems such as cardiovascular disorders, blood pressure or noise annoyance. This study was conducted due to the prevalence increase of hearing loss in industries, despite the outspread in hearing protection programs. One of these reasons in increasing noise-induced hearing loss can be related to the inefficiency of hearing protectors evaluation methods. Hearing Protective tools are not evaluated at actual levels and therefore may perform differently when used in the field than in laboratory conditions. In this method, one step is completed by using the person's subjective response to the received sound before and after using the ear protector. This part is developed by defining the subjective perception of people and their feelings towards understanding the sound and scoring the answers and then converting it into decibel values of the sound. This research is somehow aimed at developing of subjective method for the measurement of sound attenuation based ISO standard 4869-1. © 2023, Canadian Acoustical Association. All rights reserved.