Hearing Protection In The Subway
I have received some training on this subject and I would like to share it with my fellow commuters (always consult a physician as I am not an expert). If you ride the subway, then you should be wearing hearing protection. It does not take much noise for you to slowly lose your hearing. You could be losing your hearing and not even know it. Long term exposure to high noise levels can lead to NIHL (Noise Induced Hearing Loss). Even a single exposure to a loud noise can permanently affect your hearing. You can limit your exposure to noise by wearing earplugs or earmuffs. You will find the www.cdc.gov website about noise a good resource.Most people think it is silly to wear hearing protection and feel self-conscious by doing so. This is one of the worst excuses I have ever heard (no pun intended). What would you rather do, save your hearing and "look good" or go deaf? Have you ever noticed transit workers wearing hearing protection? They are doing so because they have received instruction on the subject and know that they will lose their hearing if they do not heed the advice.
The best piece of advice I can give anyone riding the subway is to buy a box of earplugs and use them! You can find them at pharmacies (too expensive), industrial suppliers (like Grainger, MSC and Travers Tool), and even on ebay (cheaper). If you want to buy in bulk (by the case), you can try (they normally only sell to other wholesalers) to buy them from Bluebaysupply.com (cheapest anywhere) by sending them an email and saying you want to buy a sample case. If you live in New York, they will charge you sales tax unless you can prove you are a wholesale business. It is still the cheapest I have been able to find earplugs.
Which hearing protection do you choose? After much trial and error, I have found earplugs made by Howard Leight to be the best (for me). The Maxx brands that they sell are excellent. For women, the Maxx Lite brand is a better fit. I wear the earplugs in the summer and generic earmuffs in the winter (too hot to wear earmuffs in the summer).
More important notes:
- Wearing hearing protection does take some getting used to. You may experience discomfort to some degree when you first start using them.
- Listening to your Ipod, CD player, etc., can do more harm than not wearing anything at all. There is plenty of recent research proving this.
- Also be aware that children have no clue about this subject and may have hearing damage already if they take the train to school.
- Infants cannot tell you why they suddenly started crying when your train just came to a screeching halt in front of you and your baby. I cannot recommend anything for infants but if I had a child and had to take the train, then I would try and fit him/her with earmuffs at the very least.
posted by Slim @ 1:22 AM
1 Comments:
What earmuffs do you use on the subway? (I have tinnitus) Muffs seem to pick up alot of vibration from the subway, I worry about exposure to low freq noise through bone conduction.(occlusion effect) Earplugs are hard to remove because of the strong seal. What are your experiences?
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