Popular Woodworking 2004-04 № 140, страница 64

AN YOI

Good.

Safety devices are commonplace around our homes and workshops. We wear gloves to protect our hands, boots to protect our feet and eyeglasses to protect our eyes, but when it comes to our ears, more often than not we can't be bothered with the extra effort. Hearing protection often is overlooked or ignored.

And we always have a good excuse for not wearing hearing protection. Which of the following more-common ones sound familiar to you?

• "I'm only using the tool for a minute or just one cut."

• "I didn't think about it until after the job was done."

• "They're uncomfortable."

• "I couldn't find them."

• "My hearing is already shot."

Woodworking can destroy your hearing in a hurry. Learn the right ways to protect it.

Well, I'm here to tell you that whatever your excuse might be, there is no excuse for going without hearing protection. As you will see from research and the charts on the following pages, power tools (either while cutting wood or just running idle) are

more dangerous to your hearing than you probably suspected.

I'll also show you some of the easiest (as in cheapest) ways you can protect your ears, as well as some of the better (and a bit more expensive) ways to prevent hearing damage and loss.

by Cynthia S. Eades

Cynthia Eades has been a board-certified audiologist for 13 years and is currently completing her doctorate in audiology with an emphasis on recreational noise exposures and hearing loss.

The Research

In the workplace, hearing protection is strongly recommended and monitored. In the early 1970s, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) established guidelines for occupational noise exposures. These guidelines were to protect workers from noise-exposure levels that were known to cause irreversible hearing loss.

Noise levels in workplaces are measured in decibels (dB) that are "A-weighted" (dBA). A-weighting places emphasis more on the frequencies that the human ear is most attuned to (500-8,000 hertz) and gives a more accurate guide to the noises that will im

62

Popular Woodworking April 2004