The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released revisions to its regulations for labeling hearing protection devices. As you may already know, the current NRR (noise reduction rating) system is pretty screwed up. Let me sum it up for you in plain language….the current NRR system represent how well a plug “could” perform if an employee had a specific size ear canal AND put the plug in perfectly every time.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for the majority of American workers who rely on these hearing protectors to keep them from going deaf. OSHA had a crazy formula to calculate a more realistic NRR (subtract 7 and divide by 2? – or something to that effect!). NIOSH then came up with an interesting approach that de-rated products based on their category (de-rate earmuffs by 25% the published NRR, disposable earplugs by 50%, etc.). Needless to say, the NRR system was seriously flawed.
Under the new protocol, manufacturers will retest their products and the new labeling would give both the low and high end NRR for each given product (basically a range of expected protection). This new system will at least allow Safety Managers a chance to make a more informed decision on which earplugs/earmuffs to select from. Hopefully, this approach will lower the incidence of work-related hearing loss!
Take a look at the following web sites that review this new standard in greater detail. At this point (we are not exactly sure when), the new labeling will actually start appearing on the packages of hearing protection devices, but we assume it is still several months away.
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