I hear I hear what you don’t, and it’s…

A colleague. An alarm. An approaching vehicle. Your phone.

Being able to perceive ambient noise at work, communicate intelligibly and still protect your hearing properly – How can that be done?

Indeed, noise-induced deafness is still in the top three occupational diseases and has been officially recognised as an irreversible health hazard in the new PPE regulation. As an employer, it is therefore very important to be aware of the noise levels present in the workplace and to take further measures to reduce personal exposure to noise. Wearing hearing protection is among these measures.

New dangers in practice

But do we often dwell enough today on the fact that when you use standard hearing protection, new dangers may therefore arise?

Some concrete consequences we see in practice every day:

• Workers cannot perceive speech, warning signals or system sounds (properly) which in turn creates risks.
• Workers are completely cut off from the environment.
• The hearing protector is not used (temporarily) because it interferes with face-to-face communication, resulting in exposure to harmful noise.

3M offers several hearing protection solutions that allow switching between normal mode and awareness mode. The awareness mode allows you to hear certain environmental sounds such as approaching vehicles. This allows you to remain aware of important environmental sounds while at work, while optimally protecting your hearing.

Watch the video on situational awareness in a factory

Hearing protection with only situational awareness

Hearing protection with situational awareness, communication and or radio function