Side effects of level dependent hearing protectors

Abstract: Hearing protectors are used in noisy environments to attenuate damaging soundlevels. Problems are reported to arise from using hearing protectors, since usefulsounds also are attenuated. Not only are sound levels attenuated, but other humanabilities are affected by hearing protectors, such as the ability to identify and localizesounds. Manufacturers of hearing protectors also develop level-dependent hearingprotectors that are supposed to create a better listening experience for the user thandoes passive hearing protectors. This thesis investigates how the ability to identifysound is affected by hearing protectors in the Swedish processing industry and towhat extent level-dependent hearing protectors improve the user’s ability to identifysound. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by asking questions based on theprojects research questions and theories found from a literary study. A questionnairewas sent out with similar questions for verification purposes. The current literatureshows that the human ability to identify sound deteriorates by the occlusion from hearing protectors. Indications are such that hearing protectors with a level-dependent function deteriorate the ability less than does passive protectors. The relevance of this in the processing industry does not seem to be very palpable. Usersindicate that it would be dangerous for this ability to be deteriorated in theworkplace and that level-dependent hearing protectors does a better job apreserving sound identification than passive protectors, but their soundidentification ability is not deteriorated enough by passive hearing protectors forproblems to arise.