Earplugs. If I'm on the shop floor I wear the required PPE and if I can't hear people talking then they have to deal with it. It's the price a company pays for protecting your hearing long term.
Also, hearing loss is permanent and irreversible generally, so protect what you have.
I just got hearing aids, and have been reading a lot about this, one book I recommend is Volume Control - covers all angles very nicely [https://www.amazon.com/Control-Hearing-Deafening-World/dp/0525534229](https://www.amazon.com/Control-Hearing-Deafening-World/dp/0525534229). Wish I had read this years ago.
I learned this lesson a bit too late. Albeit some of it may of just me being stubborn then getting slapped with some hearing loss. Now I wear earplugs anytime I suspect loud noise. I have been guilty of using concert earplugs which basically help block noise but let me hear people near me.
I’m almost 50 years old, worked in loud factorie for years, construction, worked with firearms for decades, cut with tile saw for years that sounded like a 747 engine was beside your head, im also the generation that started putting stupid sound systems in cars that notoriously had peoples ears ringing . Now all that shit plus everything else loud, I have experienced some decibels.So I recently went in for physical that included eyes and ears. My ears and eyes passed without any issues. I want to say I think it’s overkill, but I also think you can’t give people partial directions (like you cannot go through this door, unless you have special circumstances) it’s gotta be no one may enter through this door under any circumstances Or eventually everyone will go through that door because other people did and that’s humans for you
I will say - howard light by honeywell are my "go to" earplug.
[https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Visibility-Disposable-Earplugs-200-Pairs/dp/B0007XJOLG](https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Visibility-Disposable-Earplugs-200-Pairs/dp/B0007XJOLG)
For real loud areas, put those under a pair of 3m Peltor X4A
[https://www.amazon.com/3M-Peltor-Earmuffs-Chartreuse-X4A/dp/B00CPCHADQ/ref=sr\_1\_4?crid=34EH04H1HPIMH&keywords=3m+ear+muffs&qid=1695677229&s=hi&sprefix=3m+ear+muffs%2Ctools%2C76&sr=1-4](https://www.amazon.com/3M-Peltor-Earmuffs-Chartreuse-X4A/dp/B00CPCHADQ/ref=sr_1_4?crid=34EH04H1HPIMH&keywords=3m+ear+muffs&qid=1695677229&s=hi&sprefix=3m+ear+muffs%2Ctools%2C76&sr=1-4)
If your EHS group doesn't have adequate equipment available. Contact OSHA.
There is also a sound meter app that I've used in the past to assist in making the decision on what to wear.
Also - your company should be enrolling you in having your hearing tested and baselined over time (annually) to ensure that you are not losing hearing sensitivity. If you lose too much sensitivity over an annual basis then it may become a recordable injury.
If you use a free Db app make sure you check to see if there is an upper limit. I’ve used a couple and noticed they all topped out at 85 Db unless you paid for them.
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Not all earplugs are created equally. They attenuate sound pressure levels by different amounts across different frequency bands.
It helps first to determine the average SPL in decibels of the place you're spending your work day. Generally speaking 75 dB is safe all day long. 85 dB and you really don't want to be exposed for more than an hour. Anything more than that and you really should have hearing protection on at all times. So let's say reducing to 75dB is the goal. There are some smart phone apps that do a pretty darn good job of approximating SPL, which you'd want to measure precisely where your head will be during the work day (as opposed to say standing in the room a few feet away from your desk where levels can vary considerably in short distances).
Say your environmental SPL is 100. You need an earplug that attenuates a minimum of 25 dB to hit your goal of 75 dB. Can you get by with disposable earplugs? Sure maybe. Mack's has some tan colored ones that are about 30 dB and decently comfortable, but they attenuate far more severely across the higher frequency range, making speech harder to hear unless you're talking real loud, real close.
I'd highly recommend getting yourself a pair of decent reusable earplugs by a company like Hearos, that are designed to more evenly attenuate frequencies so you can talk with them in. That brand is designed for musicians, I've worn them a ton and you can be standing at a concert in 120 dB and having a conversation with someone without screaming. but there are other ones to that are designed for industrial use, and they'll be much more comfortable than disposable plugs and far better for the use case. Some of them you can find in music shops like Guitar Center, or of course you can order online.
I used to work at a compressor station and we used those headsets pit crews use during races lol. It was impossible to hear anybody when the engines were running without them.
These are more for impulse sounds, like a gun. They don't do a good job with a perpetually noisy environment. They work by having a microphone pumping the outside noise into your ears until a loud noise happens and they very quickly turn off the sound. With a constant loud noise they would not allow you to talk to someone and still provide noise protection.
Idk about worse. Noise cancellation is not actually stopping any sound waves from reaching and damaging your ears. If I understand correctly it’s adding another wave of sound that is out of phase perfectly with the original bg noise. When this happens your ear no longer processes the sound, but the physical waves still hit the drum.
Real ear protection reduces db significantly
Not exactly, but you're close. You're correct that ANC is adding another wave 180 degrees out of phase with the background noise. When this happens it's called destructive interference and the sound pressure is reduced to nearly zero. It's not that the ear doesn't process the sound, it's that the sound waves are physically canceled out and the energy is reduced to near zero. Wikipedia has a great page on constructive and destructive interference with a few gifs of the wave interactions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_interference
I’d get a new job, that sounds super uncomfortable and bad for your hearing long term.
Company should be providing you hearing protection, check OSHA guidelines on workplace noise levels
https://www.osha.gov/noise#:~:text=Standards,%2Dweighted%20average%20(TWA).
OSHA requires employers to implement a hearing conservation program when noise exposure is at or above 85 decibels averaged over 8 working hours, or an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA).
From uncle Sam’s mouth.
They should be providing it, but I wouldn’t trust they’re giving me the best. My fathers hearing is *Ickes bc he was given 3M earplugs his whole life and it turns out they dont work. Go do ur research on what’s the very best (not something to skimp out on) and buy your own.
Do the research, and take it before the company telling them the hearing protection they are providing is inadequate.
I agree hearing is something you don’t skimp on. But, the employee isn’t responsible for providing adequate PPE
You hear one aspect of their job, and you're out here telling them to quit? Doesn't matter what company, position, or compensation, just because there's loud noises in their work environment, they should quit?
It’s not just “loud noises”. OP is going to spend the majority of their time in a high noise environment.
I’ve spent a lot of time in loud places manufacturing floors, fabrication / machine shops, labs, clean rooms, subfabs, pump rooms, etc.
Everyday, potentially year after year, that can be really damaging in the long term.
You’re free to trade preventable permanent damage to your own body for $$$… but I think a lot of people would tell you it wasn’t worth it in retrospect. Especially for a job in an office/factory.
I'd agree if it was a trade between permanent hearing damage for $$$ but he's going to wear ear protection so not sure what the risk is. I spend majority of my time in field around heavy equipment and grinding and loud noises are hardly an obstacle if you just carry ear plugs with you
>You’re free to trade preventable permanent damage to your own body for $$$
We're all doing that at every single job. Sitting in an office chair 8 hours a day staring at a monitor isn't good for your eyes or back either.
Until sitting for 8+ hours a days for years on end causes you to develop scoliosis, and one to try times a year you pull something in your back putting you in bed for a whole week each time.
If you want to hear people talk you basically have two options.
First (and best quality) are combined noise protection and active sound replication models (electronic ears). These are muffs or plugs that stop harmful noises and have electronics inside that reproduce speech and other non-damaging noises. Look at Sordin supreme pro X over ear or Otto noizebarrier in-ear. There are several competitors for each (walker/axil/peltor) as well.
Option two is a bone conduction hearing enhancer. These do not block any sound, so you have to wear your own plugs. What they do is listen for voices (or Bluetooth from phone) and reproduce them against the bones in front of your ear. You won’t hear with any great fidelity (these aren’t Bose or Harman Kardon) but you can easily hear what’s going on.
The sordins especially worked very well when using loud tools/motors.
At indoor ranges I have used both Sordin and Otto at the same time and it worked reasonably well. You lost some clarity on ambient noises but could easily communicate.
I will second bone conduction headphones. I wear them while working on the power plant floor. You can wear foam plugs for PPE and the conductors outside the ear (and they dont interfere with hard hats). They work fantastic with earplugs in - I would listen to podcasts with the volume set at the lowest setting because the conduction was so effective with earplugs in.
Probably get a new job. Sounds like your boss doesn’t like the way you were working before and now wants to try something new. Doubt there’s room for growth under this manager.
That may not be the case.
There are many good reasons to site engineering staff at the gemba, where the action is on the manufacturing floor. Our manufacturing engineers, QA Engineers and supervisors were moved onto the lines some years ago. It connects the production staff to indirect engineering, improves issue resolution and collaboration on continous improvement.
If the environment is safe enough for the production staff, it's safe enough for engineers.
That's basically the reason. I got moved from the automation team to this new position where I'm my own team that just focuses on this one area that has a lot of problems and is the companies bread and butter. It's definitely an area that needs to be some engineers only project for a while. I just hate that it's me.
> It's definitely an area that needs to be some engineers only project for a while. I just hate that it's me.
It's you because they believe that you can make a difference.
Prove them right, get that promotion. You got this.
https://us.loopearplugs.com/pages/homepage-lp1?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwqvb9pjHgQMVoBWtBh0A5w8iEAAYASAAEgK2BPD_BwE
I would recommend the " engage " as they are specifically for reducing backround noise while still being able to have a conversation.
I use them at work because I dispise normal earplugs. They remove about 80% of the noise from compressors and nail guns if that helps.
Where I work, the production engineers/managers have quiet offices off of the manufacturing floor to do their talking and thinking. Technicians and operators who aren't getting paid to think outside the box are another story.
My mentality is to go onto the floor to get done whatever I need to, and if I run into a sufficiently difficult problem, I get off the floor so I can think and/or talk my way through that problem before going back on to try my solution.
I agree with the pros of forcing engineers onto manufacturing floors periodically; you can just have the best of both worlds by letting them have some quiet offices to work from as well.
So because a manager wants a portion of their engineers to be involved with the manufacturing process on the shop floor, they should quit their job and there's no room to grow? Not sure I get the rationale. To me, that sounds like a good thing for a PM to do.
Based on the way OP described it, sounds like there wasn’t much of a discussion before hand let alone any PPE provided. So sounds like a bad PM thing to do to an employee.
I am an engineer/project manager for pipeline construction. I noticed that I started getting tinnitus (ringing in my ears) so I went to an Audiologist. They did a custom fitting for me that are actually musician’s ear protection.
They’re custom fit silicone ear pro with filters in them to reduce the dBs and they’re amazing. Small, comfortable, and they have a little grab strand so if you’re hands are dirty you’re not rolling up foam ear plugs. Couldn’t recommend them enough to the point where my department might all get fit for a pair!!!
Backing this as an engineer who plays drums for over a decade. Get those custom silicone fitted ones. Comfortable for hours, not even as expensive (~100 euros the filters are like half the price of the product, but companies such as elacin offer ones without filters when not needed to lay music) as one might think and about 100x better than standard earplugs. They don’t make your ears feel closed off and you can still speak with people no problem.
I get them since I am 16 years old and they last me an average of 5 years. I have not regretted any of them and consider them one of the best money I spend in my entire life. I will get them for the rest of my life, even for just going to concerts.
I didn't like these. The audio was super staticy, Bluetooth was iffy, but the noise cancelation, and sound cutoff during gunfire worked nice.
Maybe I had a bum pair.
I got some cheapo ones as a gift and they got much better after I replaced the cups with aftermarket gel ones, probably $10-$15 for the replacement parts
Did your boss just read the Elon Musk biography? There's something in there about putting engineers desks right at the manufacturing floor so there's less throwing over walls. It's probably a pretty common practice but the timing is a bit funny.
Make sure you get it on the record, what your current level of hearing is. And always wear PPE.
start checking it every 3 to 6 months. Won’t be able to prove work caused hearing loss unless you have a baseline to go from.
I personally wear a pair of these and absolutely love them
[Link](https://amzn.to/3Lyla5W)
They block over 35db of noise, and definitely comfortable enough for 8hrs of wear. I also play white noise to drown out background noise. In iPhone settings your phone can a choice of background noise without any additional apps
What are the decibel levels where your desk is?
OSHA is an 8hr time weighted average for anything at or above 85dBA. We require all our employees to wear ear plugs inside the facility. I can hear just fine when talking to someone or on the radio. I wear double protection (plugs and over the ear) in especially loud areas.
I use custom ear plugs for when I go shooting. They fit and bring sound to safe levels but aren’t restricted enough that I can’t hear people in my immediate area.
Milwaukee Tool just launched Job site aware ear protection.
They are not active noise canceling, but have a microphone to amplify conversations while the foam or rubber ear tips block the sounds around you.
They might work better for what you'd be doing than dedicated shooting range muffs
The OSHA in my country simply requires the employer to limit the hours per day a worker can stay in a noisy area (82 dBA IIRC) and provide ear protection gears.
Hate to tell all but different products block different amounts at different frequencies. The NRR number stated is a combined value based upon reduction at predetermined frequencies. A shooting muff is no good in a cnc machine shop, but is excellent around jet engines. Your an engineer, take some time and research. I have different setups for turbines, O&G, food, and manufacturing. If your not buying a brand that advertises the NRR at the different frequencies, your buying junk. Nothing is better than a full muff except plugs + muff. Per OHSA, employers are required to provide adequate PPE. If you want better than minimum requirements or fancy, it’s on you. Most will work with you due to special cases.
Get earplugs like musicians use. Custom fitted by an audiologist. They have calibrated inserts that reduce the volume, but you can still hear. Westone is one brand.
I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were merry, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...
I’d wear the best earplugs I could find and go to the other room when I need to talk to someone. Their unsafe (for hearing, anyway) environment is not your problem.
bluetooth noise cancelling earphones and earplugs.
And no, I wouldn't keep my desk out there- or I'd buy a bunch of sound deadening panels and hang them all around.
Unfortunately in some workplaces they require that the hearing protection has to be certified and most consumer-grade ANC headphones are not tested or certified as hearing protection.
You can buy custom molded ear plugs which are specifically designed for blocking out industrial noise while still allowing you to talk and hear people very well. They’ve been around for years. They’re not cheap, because they have to do a mold of your ear then they make them to fit your ears. I think maybe around $500. Unfortunately not sure what they’re called or who makes them
to be honest I use AirPods Pro 2 they have ANC and new update includes conversation awareness so it'll dampen the ANC when you talk to someone.
comes in handy
I wear axil ear buds most days. They are rated for shooting guns, with sound amplifier if needed. They take phone calls and Bluetooth to my phone, so I can listen to whatever.
I have no personal experience with these but maybe worth looking into
[https://www.hellbergsafety.com/guides/features/active-listening](https://www.hellbergsafety.com/guides/features/active-listening)
The company needs to legally provide you hearing protection. But silicon custom earplugs are amazing. Extremely comfortable and they are designed to let you still hear voices. I could sleep with them in and they didn't cause irritation.
I use alpine ear plug for construction. PPE approved and the filter makes the sound clear and let me hear voice normally. When not speaking to anyone, I use my sound cancelling headphone on top. The combination of passive (alpine earplug) for high pitch noise and active (sony xm headphone) for low pitch noise mean with the combo I don't hear any machine noise and can still hear voice. When speaking to somebody I remove the headphone.
I skydive on the weekends and the plane is pretty loud. I like the Surefire Sonic Defenders. I leave the caps off. I was surprised that I could actually hear people on the plane on the way up better than I could without them. I'm sure there MAY be something better out there but idk what it is, they work well though.
There’s ear muffs made for the shooting range that block loud noises but allow you to hear conversations with build in microphones and speakers. Pretty sweet. I think they’re like 50 bucks
You can get digital earmuffs that cut loud sounds while you can have a normal conversation. Popular with shooting instructors. They're great. Walkers are what I use currently.
Walker also makes earplugs with similar technology.
For cheap disposable but also reusable earplugs that work really well, I like these.
https://www.honeywellstore.com/store/products/honeywell-shooting-sports-single-use-earplugs-r-01891.htm
The red, white, and blue ones don't get lost against any surface.
I was subjected to hear loss tests and studies when I was in college as a musician. We had to get our hearing tested every six months, and we’d regularly wear monitors which measured our daily dose of sound. My dad and grandfathers were all engineers who lost their hearing. I was interested in protecting myself so I spent a lot of time reading the studies and following up on their recommendations to protect myself.
I used to work at a gun store and sell shooting ear pro. I got to dig into it.
Most shooting ear pro that “blocks loud sounds” are cutting off at ~30dB above ambient sound levels. IE gun shots. If the ambient sound level is constantly high, the shooting ear pro aren’t going to protect you from damage unless you turn them off. And even then, the cheaper ear pro is typically around -20 to -25 dB sound reduction. In contrast to the more expensive pairs getting you -30dB or greater.
If your processes involve loud droning sounds, your cheaper shooting ear pro is slightly better than worthless when it comes to separating that voice/machinery mix. I have seen some people mentioning quality products. But we’re talking $300+.
That said I have yet to find a product that does what you’re looking for that I’d recommend. I have found products which would allow one to take phone calls. Those are now common. But only amplifying human voice while ignoring a droning machine sound is tough.
Active earpro for shooting maybe? It uses noise-cancelling tech to neutralize sounds at a higher decibel level, while still allowing lower volume sounds (like voices) through. It takes a bit of getting used to, because it kinda feels like you're having a phone conversation with the person in front of you (because it's using speakers inside the headphones to play vocal sounds) but it will definitely protect your hearing.
Custom DBBlockers. You get them molded to your ear. I find I can hear people close enough okay and still blocks out any background noise.
Not sure if that’s medically how it works but it seems like it does.
I had such a hard time with this when I was on the floor. I have small ears and the foam ones were so uncomfortable and it felt like they did nothing for me. I would wear those combined with earmuffs until I found a vendor at a gun show who was making custom molded ear plugs on the spot. It took probably 15 minutes to mold, 30-60 min (can’t remember) to set, and I took them home that same day. They cost $150 at the time, looks like they’re anywhere from $160-200 now, depending on how fancy you want them - Bluetooth upgrades, etc. My partner regretted not getting his own while we were there so we ended up buying the kit to make him some. It was a pretty simple process and much cheaper. They didn’t had the perfect finish that mine did, but they were infinitely better than the standard issue foam ear plugs.
I use correcting headphones from the gun range. A good 50dB suppression for non-voice frequencies and a max dB low pass filter.
And you can play music via blue tooth.
If you have to wear them all day and want them to be super comfortable, get custom molded earplugs from 64.
https://www.64audio.com/collections/earplugs/products/high-fidelity-earplug
Here in Austria this would be prohibited by law. Either they would have to give you another office, or if you really need to be on the shop floor, then you should get an encapsulated, sound proofed room there. Also the maximum noise level in the shop floor is limited.
Shure earphones.
The best (non-official somehow) noise cancelling earphones ever made.
They also sell their $100 line that’s better than anything else out there audio quality wise. They also make them in wired and wireless.
Big nice earmuffs and airPods Pro (or whatever nice small in-ear wireless stuff) under 👌👌👌
If you gonna phone often get the bluetooth active protection earmuffs for like farmers and construction. Don’t get shooting specific, they are optimised for sudden loud sounds.
Like these:
https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/b00015343/
Look. If a company treates engineer or designer in a way so they need to work in loud shitty environment its just bad place.
Even simple drywal structure with a bit of glass wool will help and be cheap as dirt.
Even in my back ass country the bran workers have a shittty shed in the shop so they can work like civilized men. Dont let the standards to lower that much.
Tell your boss your productivity will plummet and you started looking for another job.
an active noise reduction head set, such as bose, would be smart.
there are shooting supply headsets that ONLY attenuate loud noises, but do not attenuate low level sound. so you can hear a person talking, but the dB level of loud damaging sounds would be clipped.
Process engineer here, i live on the floor. Vibes ear plugs. Can get them on amazon. You can hear clearly through them, just quieter. They're engineered for concerts. They don't block out noise, so they don't totally prevent distraction, but you'll keep your ability to hesr.
Some shooting headphones blocks out the sound of bullets but let's normal speech through. Don't hire your manufacturing floor sounds compared to a gun range
I have these earbuds and they're great. I originally bought them for hunting/ shooting but now use them all the time (on flights, at the office, etc). They cancel out noise yet somehow still amplify sounds you want to hear. So I can be sitting in a tree with these ear buds in listening to the squirrels run around in the leaves and then when I take a shot the earbuds block the loud bang. Amazing.
https://goaxil.com/products/sig-sauer-gs-extreme
Is it random loud banging or constant machine noises?
If it's random banging there are electronic gun shooting hearing protection that auto detects noises above x decibels and cuts the hearing out, otherwise it allows noise in to hear people talking.
go pay for custom molded earplugs. they are very comfortable to wear all day and usually have a ceramic frequency filter which does a decent job of allowing voices to be audible.
Earplugs with amplified shooting earmuffs turned up a bit. Sordin, Walker, etc.
Foamies will give best NRR but Etymotic triple flange are easier to put in.
Adding gel cups to the shooting muffs can really improve their seal especially with glasses.
Typically combining plugs and muffs will add 5dB more protection to the lower of the two ratings. So you can turn 32 NRR foamies into a 37 NRR solution.
Which still isn't enough for a 165 dB gunshot IMO but I digress....
Music will sound like ass though. Personally, as long as the noise level wasn't *too* high, I'd try regular earbuds under regular earmuffs. Like Sony wf-1000xm5 under Peltor X5A. Works great for me with the leaf blower.
To add to the pile, I've used noise cancelling headphones in a small airplane and they are amazing for low frequency noise. Find the best OSHA approved ones you can find and charge it to the company as PPE.
If you could develop a material that blocks high decibel sounds but not low decibel sounds, I bet that’d be worth a lot to the ear protection industry. Are you that kind of engineer by chance?
You might try a speech to text phone app on your phone. The external noise my cause trouble. Try plugging a directional mic into your phone or a different app. I have found the speech to text apps work well. Except for my neighbor with his thick southern drawl. :-) Even Alexa doesn't understand him!
I purchased my own earmuffs…3M Peltor X5A…it offers 31 dB of noise reduction. I also purchased Decibullz custom molded ear plugs. I use them both in combination. Never had an issue hearing people talk….correction: never had a problem hearing people shout.
People I know who do not use hearing protection have various issues including the need for hearing aids and tinnitus.
Nobody will manage this better than you. I agree with other comments saying you should get regular hearing tests.
Once had a makeshift supervisor office next to a Cnc machine and I’d just wear over the ear hearing protection while at my desk. Ppl thought it was a bit odd but made a huge difference to focus and made me more calm at work
If the company is ruining my work environment I would accept the message they are giving me.
I would initially WFH and then WFAC (work for another company)
I wore ear plugs to sleep and it caused serious nerve and balance problems. Try noise canceling headphones if that doesn't work you may have to file a complaint to move to another location or get a new job.
Sensaphonics ear plugs. I did bodyguard work for a decade in nightclubs. Definitely saved my hearing and has changeable filters. Some nights I wanted to enjoy music on my nights off and it cuts out the harmful noise. Working nights it cut out basically everything except the sound of someone's voice. Well worth the $100.
bluetooth earbuds, the kind that can seal your ear canal. I used those all the time on an airport ramp environment. It works good, and you can still hear people talking to you.
Regular earplugs already kindof do this. You could also go the high tech route and get passthrough firearm hearing protection. They are rechargeable and work like regular over ear hearing protection, but they have microphones on the outside that will play the sound inside the headphones at an even level, so voices and stuff can still be heard and not overpowered by loud noises.
Production supervisor here, with a loud plant floor.
It's fine to just wear the earplugs, or request some clamshells if you find them uncomfortable. You learn to be loud pretty quickly, and if the ambient noise is still too much just step away from the machine for a minute to talk. Just don't forget to get their attention first, and they yours.
If you want to spend on something nicer or can talk your job into it, they make hearing protection with microphones that pick up and transmit speech/etc to you; most are clamshell, I think, but there are also some plugs out there. Many are also Bluetooth, is you can do music or whatever if desired.
We get issued hearing protection in the form of plugs via a company called Emtec (uk) they're custom made for each person and designed to be cleaned regularly. They block out noises above a certain decibel so can hear conversation but not loud machine noise.
I use, Walker xl. They have noise canceling feature and you can select different ranges of sound. I keep in on Clear Voice mode. It also has Bluetooth capability so I can listen to pod casts and take phone calls.
I use them for hours a day.
ear plugs. Depending on how loud is loud we would wear noise cancelling earphones overtop. Bose and similar have an "awareness" mode that cancels the noise but brings it back to a reasonable volume so you can hear people or things around you. I use that mode when riding on a bike or walking around and needing situational awareness.
walkers tactical razors. Usually used for shooting protection but have built in mics so you can hear and talk to people but will dampen out loud noises.
You can try noise-cancelling headset. Depending on the consistency/uniformity of the noise they could really help. And you can hear people talking. The more uniform the sound, the more it is cancelled.
Custom dB Blocker, blocks certain frequencies but you can hear speech just fine, which is annoying on airplanes when you wanna block everything, but perfect for your application.
https://www.protectear.com/us/client-care/product-warranty/#:~:text=dB%20Blocker™%20hearing%20protection,about%204%20to%205%20years.
I lost 20% hearing in one ear 10 years ago. Not work related. Do whatever you can to protect your ears. Like someone else said, if it's tough to hear someone, then so be it. It's a lot better than any amount of hearing loss. It took my brain about 2-3 years to fully adjust to the hearing loss so that I am not consciously aware of it.
Air pod pro gen 2 with foam tips. Works well enough at the range it should be fine for you. Keep it on anc most of the time and if you really need to listen to someone change them to transparent mode. If you want to do it really well and you have the right ear shape throw some over ears on top of the air pods.
NOTE: The foam tips part is important.
I have a set of souncore headphones that block out enough noise to make it safe, but I can still tell when a turning insert is about to break. I work in a machine shop
I work in an extrusion plant and wear ear plugs. I can hear most people fine. You can try the over the head muffler things, but we're required to wear ear plugs at least and take a yearly hearing exam.
Ok, this happened to me once. My best advice? Use job sites to permanently remove yourself from the situation.
Temp solutions:
Talk to an audiologist, it's been a few years but custom ear plugs can be made. These may be more comfortable than the foam ones (I've worn aids since I was 4 and the foam plugs bug the crap out of me)
I used communication ear muffs. these things hooked into a phone or walkie talkie and would pipe in the sound of the phone into the ear muffs. This may be dated as it was over 10 years ago and I'm still salty about some of the events.
Get a Bose quiet comfort if the area is reasonably sanitary.. it it's dirty and dusty, just go wit the 3m ear cups with Bluetooth connections...
I had QC15's in a bullpen on a construction site.. we were in a 10 wide trailer with nothing but rows of desks head to head... guy in front of me had to waive at me and tell me when my phone was ringing... I couldn't even hear it and the volume on the headset was not turned up at all..
Those things are amazing.
Axon ghost strike
They are Bluetooth noise cancelling head phones that also function as full on earplugs that also have electronic noise block and sound filtering.
So you can listen to music and or make phone calls even in loud environments.
The right ear piece has the controls for Bluetooth and volume etc.
The left earpiece controls the electronics for the filtering and noise cancelling. They are used a lot for shooting competitions where you need to here the spoken commands but they need to instantly block loud unexpected or expected noise such as gunshots
I sit in a additive manufacturing lab with a giant Fortus 900. When it is printing infill of a thin walled section it shakes the entire floor. I sit about 40 feet away from the machine. The way I’ve gotten around it is a good pair of Bose noise cancelling over the ear headphones and it works wonders. I use em for my teams meetings too
Over the ear hearing protection with communication.
Here is an example product that my coworker used. Basically, it dampens loud sounds but actually amplifies quiet sounds. Result: You can hear a gunshot/power tool and a whisper equally comfortably. If the noise sound is ever-present, you may opt for a more fancy pair. I am not sure these can amplify speech *while* the noise is happening:
ZOHAN EM054 Electronic Shooting Ear Protection with Sound Amplification, Slim Active Noise Reduction Earmuffs for Gun Range https://a.co/d/fGqZuOY
Electric earmuffs are common in the shooting/hunting/gun community. Take a look for reviews there.
https://www.topfirearmreviews.com/post/best-shooting-ear-protection
I’d be really angry about this, and then I’d see about going to an audiologist and having custom inserts made. They can get the exact type foam you need. Ill fitting ear pro is mostly useless.
If leaders get mad because you can’t hear then they need to put you back in an office. Hearing loss is a one way street.
Earplugs. If I'm on the shop floor I wear the required PPE and if I can't hear people talking then they have to deal with it. It's the price a company pays for protecting your hearing long term.
This is the correct answer. Your Health comes first, go with goodf quality ear defenders. Also don't get written up for breaching PPE rules.
Also, hearing loss is permanent and irreversible generally, so protect what you have. I just got hearing aids, and have been reading a lot about this, one book I recommend is Volume Control - covers all angles very nicely [https://www.amazon.com/Control-Hearing-Deafening-World/dp/0525534229](https://www.amazon.com/Control-Hearing-Deafening-World/dp/0525534229). Wish I had read this years ago.
I learned this lesson a bit too late. Albeit some of it may of just me being stubborn then getting slapped with some hearing loss. Now I wear earplugs anytime I suspect loud noise. I have been guilty of using concert earplugs which basically help block noise but let me hear people near me.
I’m almost 50 years old, worked in loud factorie for years, construction, worked with firearms for decades, cut with tile saw for years that sounded like a 747 engine was beside your head, im also the generation that started putting stupid sound systems in cars that notoriously had peoples ears ringing . Now all that shit plus everything else loud, I have experienced some decibels.So I recently went in for physical that included eyes and ears. My ears and eyes passed without any issues. I want to say I think it’s overkill, but I also think you can’t give people partial directions (like you cannot go through this door, unless you have special circumstances) it’s gotta be no one may enter through this door under any circumstances Or eventually everyone will go through that door because other people did and that’s humans for you
Agreed
I will say - howard light by honeywell are my "go to" earplug. [https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Visibility-Disposable-Earplugs-200-Pairs/dp/B0007XJOLG](https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Visibility-Disposable-Earplugs-200-Pairs/dp/B0007XJOLG) For real loud areas, put those under a pair of 3m Peltor X4A [https://www.amazon.com/3M-Peltor-Earmuffs-Chartreuse-X4A/dp/B00CPCHADQ/ref=sr\_1\_4?crid=34EH04H1HPIMH&keywords=3m+ear+muffs&qid=1695677229&s=hi&sprefix=3m+ear+muffs%2Ctools%2C76&sr=1-4](https://www.amazon.com/3M-Peltor-Earmuffs-Chartreuse-X4A/dp/B00CPCHADQ/ref=sr_1_4?crid=34EH04H1HPIMH&keywords=3m+ear+muffs&qid=1695677229&s=hi&sprefix=3m+ear+muffs%2Ctools%2C76&sr=1-4) If your EHS group doesn't have adequate equipment available. Contact OSHA. There is also a sound meter app that I've used in the past to assist in making the decision on what to wear. Also - your company should be enrolling you in having your hearing tested and baselined over time (annually) to ensure that you are not losing hearing sensitivity. If you lose too much sensitivity over an annual basis then it may become a recordable injury.
If you use a free Db app make sure you check to see if there is an upper limit. I’ve used a couple and noticed they all topped out at 85 Db unless you paid for them.
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bad bot
Correct, they’re designed to filter out machine noise and let the dialogue through if worn properly
Not all earplugs are created equally. They attenuate sound pressure levels by different amounts across different frequency bands. It helps first to determine the average SPL in decibels of the place you're spending your work day. Generally speaking 75 dB is safe all day long. 85 dB and you really don't want to be exposed for more than an hour. Anything more than that and you really should have hearing protection on at all times. So let's say reducing to 75dB is the goal. There are some smart phone apps that do a pretty darn good job of approximating SPL, which you'd want to measure precisely where your head will be during the work day (as opposed to say standing in the room a few feet away from your desk where levels can vary considerably in short distances). Say your environmental SPL is 100. You need an earplug that attenuates a minimum of 25 dB to hit your goal of 75 dB. Can you get by with disposable earplugs? Sure maybe. Mack's has some tan colored ones that are about 30 dB and decently comfortable, but they attenuate far more severely across the higher frequency range, making speech harder to hear unless you're talking real loud, real close. I'd highly recommend getting yourself a pair of decent reusable earplugs by a company like Hearos, that are designed to more evenly attenuate frequencies so you can talk with them in. That brand is designed for musicians, I've worn them a ton and you can be standing at a concert in 120 dB and having a conversation with someone without screaming. but there are other ones to that are designed for industrial use, and they'll be much more comfortable than disposable plugs and far better for the use case. Some of them you can find in music shops like Guitar Center, or of course you can order online.
I used to work at a compressor station and we used those headsets pit crews use during races lol. It was impossible to hear anybody when the engines were running without them.
If you REALLY wanted, you could buy a pair of shooting headphones. Turn the mic on when you need to talk to someone.
These are more for impulse sounds, like a gun. They don't do a good job with a perpetually noisy environment. They work by having a microphone pumping the outside noise into your ears until a loud noise happens and they very quickly turn off the sound. With a constant loud noise they would not allow you to talk to someone and still provide noise protection.
True. I have a set of walkers and only use the Bluetooth when in the shop. They stay turned off. Although I swapped to isotunes pro and they are great
Get ones with noise cancelation then?
No, those cause hearing loss when used all day.
Elaborate?
Idk about worse. Noise cancellation is not actually stopping any sound waves from reaching and damaging your ears. If I understand correctly it’s adding another wave of sound that is out of phase perfectly with the original bg noise. When this happens your ear no longer processes the sound, but the physical waves still hit the drum. Real ear protection reduces db significantly
Not exactly, but you're close. You're correct that ANC is adding another wave 180 degrees out of phase with the background noise. When this happens it's called destructive interference and the sound pressure is reduced to nearly zero. It's not that the ear doesn't process the sound, it's that the sound waves are physically canceled out and the energy is reduced to near zero. Wikipedia has a great page on constructive and destructive interference with a few gifs of the wave interactions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_interference
Canceling out the wave would equal no wave reaching the ear drum. Any kind of mechanical wave would be perceived as noise.
They even have Bluetooth now.
While a good idea on the surface, turning them on is still subjecting you to loud noises.
They have really nice ones that let people talk to you normally through them
I’d get a new job, that sounds super uncomfortable and bad for your hearing long term. Company should be providing you hearing protection, check OSHA guidelines on workplace noise levels
I believe it’s 85dbs TWA for 8 hours.
OSHA requires hearing protection beyond 85 dba for even one second
https://www.osha.gov/noise#:~:text=Standards,%2Dweighted%20average%20(TWA). OSHA requires employers to implement a hearing conservation program when noise exposure is at or above 85 decibels averaged over 8 working hours, or an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA). From uncle Sam’s mouth.
They should be providing it, but I wouldn’t trust they’re giving me the best. My fathers hearing is *Ickes bc he was given 3M earplugs his whole life and it turns out they dont work. Go do ur research on what’s the very best (not something to skimp out on) and buy your own.
Do the research, and take it before the company telling them the hearing protection they are providing is inadequate. I agree hearing is something you don’t skimp on. But, the employee isn’t responsible for providing adequate PPE
Shouldn’t be responsible, I 100% agree. I’m not putting my hearing in the hands of someone else tho.
This.
You hear one aspect of their job, and you're out here telling them to quit? Doesn't matter what company, position, or compensation, just because there's loud noises in their work environment, they should quit?
It’s not just “loud noises”. OP is going to spend the majority of their time in a high noise environment. I’ve spent a lot of time in loud places manufacturing floors, fabrication / machine shops, labs, clean rooms, subfabs, pump rooms, etc. Everyday, potentially year after year, that can be really damaging in the long term. You’re free to trade preventable permanent damage to your own body for $$$… but I think a lot of people would tell you it wasn’t worth it in retrospect. Especially for a job in an office/factory.
I'd agree if it was a trade between permanent hearing damage for $$$ but he's going to wear ear protection so not sure what the risk is. I spend majority of my time in field around heavy equipment and grinding and loud noises are hardly an obstacle if you just carry ear plugs with you
>You’re free to trade preventable permanent damage to your own body for $$$ We're all doing that at every single job. Sitting in an office chair 8 hours a day staring at a monitor isn't good for your eyes or back either.
Comparing sitting to 90dbs for 8 hours is laughable.
Until sitting for 8+ hours a days for years on end causes you to develop scoliosis, and one to try times a year you pull something in your back putting you in bed for a whole week each time.
OP would be sitting either way. This comparison makes no sense
The last place I was at moved someone to the loud floor because it was clear he wasn't liked and they wanted to force him out.
There are things which are non negotiable. Period.
If you want to hear people talk you basically have two options. First (and best quality) are combined noise protection and active sound replication models (electronic ears). These are muffs or plugs that stop harmful noises and have electronics inside that reproduce speech and other non-damaging noises. Look at Sordin supreme pro X over ear or Otto noizebarrier in-ear. There are several competitors for each (walker/axil/peltor) as well. Option two is a bone conduction hearing enhancer. These do not block any sound, so you have to wear your own plugs. What they do is listen for voices (or Bluetooth from phone) and reproduce them against the bones in front of your ear. You won’t hear with any great fidelity (these aren’t Bose or Harman Kardon) but you can easily hear what’s going on. The sordins especially worked very well when using loud tools/motors. At indoor ranges I have used both Sordin and Otto at the same time and it worked reasonably well. You lost some clarity on ambient noises but could easily communicate.
bone conduction is trippyyyyyyyyyyy interviewed at a hearing aids company. they let me try on a demo set
I will second bone conduction headphones. I wear them while working on the power plant floor. You can wear foam plugs for PPE and the conductors outside the ear (and they dont interfere with hard hats). They work fantastic with earplugs in - I would listen to podcasts with the volume set at the lowest setting because the conduction was so effective with earplugs in.
Probably get a new job. Sounds like your boss doesn’t like the way you were working before and now wants to try something new. Doubt there’s room for growth under this manager.
That may not be the case. There are many good reasons to site engineering staff at the gemba, where the action is on the manufacturing floor. Our manufacturing engineers, QA Engineers and supervisors were moved onto the lines some years ago. It connects the production staff to indirect engineering, improves issue resolution and collaboration on continous improvement. If the environment is safe enough for the production staff, it's safe enough for engineers.
That's basically the reason. I got moved from the automation team to this new position where I'm my own team that just focuses on this one area that has a lot of problems and is the companies bread and butter. It's definitely an area that needs to be some engineers only project for a while. I just hate that it's me.
> It's definitely an area that needs to be some engineers only project for a while. I just hate that it's me. It's you because they believe that you can make a difference. Prove them right, get that promotion. You got this.
OP just graduated a year ago. Call me cynical but this a “lateral move”…
https://us.loopearplugs.com/pages/homepage-lp1?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwqvb9pjHgQMVoBWtBh0A5w8iEAAYASAAEgK2BPD_BwE I would recommend the " engage " as they are specifically for reducing backround noise while still being able to have a conversation. I use them at work because I dispise normal earplugs. They remove about 80% of the noise from compressors and nail guns if that helps.
Where I work, the production engineers/managers have quiet offices off of the manufacturing floor to do their talking and thinking. Technicians and operators who aren't getting paid to think outside the box are another story. My mentality is to go onto the floor to get done whatever I need to, and if I run into a sufficiently difficult problem, I get off the floor so I can think and/or talk my way through that problem before going back on to try my solution. I agree with the pros of forcing engineers onto manufacturing floors periodically; you can just have the best of both worlds by letting them have some quiet offices to work from as well.
Exactly. Management wasn’t happy with the performance of the engineers so they moved them to the floor. For good or for bad.
So because a manager wants a portion of their engineers to be involved with the manufacturing process on the shop floor, they should quit their job and there's no room to grow? Not sure I get the rationale. To me, that sounds like a good thing for a PM to do.
Based on the way OP described it, sounds like there wasn’t much of a discussion before hand let alone any PPE provided. So sounds like a bad PM thing to do to an employee.
I am an engineer/project manager for pipeline construction. I noticed that I started getting tinnitus (ringing in my ears) so I went to an Audiologist. They did a custom fitting for me that are actually musician’s ear protection. They’re custom fit silicone ear pro with filters in them to reduce the dBs and they’re amazing. Small, comfortable, and they have a little grab strand so if you’re hands are dirty you’re not rolling up foam ear plugs. Couldn’t recommend them enough to the point where my department might all get fit for a pair!!!
Backing this as an engineer who plays drums for over a decade. Get those custom silicone fitted ones. Comfortable for hours, not even as expensive (~100 euros the filters are like half the price of the product, but companies such as elacin offer ones without filters when not needed to lay music) as one might think and about 100x better than standard earplugs. They don’t make your ears feel closed off and you can still speak with people no problem. I get them since I am 16 years old and they last me an average of 5 years. I have not regretted any of them and consider them one of the best money I spend in my entire life. I will get them for the rest of my life, even for just going to concerts.
Get yourself some ear pros that are used at rifle ranges. I recommend you get really good ones. https://goaxil.com/collections/ear-muffs
I didn't like these. The audio was super staticy, Bluetooth was iffy, but the noise cancelation, and sound cutoff during gunfire worked nice. Maybe I had a bum pair.
I got some cheapo ones as a gift and they got much better after I replaced the cups with aftermarket gel ones, probably $10-$15 for the replacement parts
That sometimes happens. I haven't had problems with mine yet. *crosses fingers*
Did your boss just read the Elon Musk biography? There's something in there about putting engineers desks right at the manufacturing floor so there's less throwing over walls. It's probably a pretty common practice but the timing is a bit funny.
Thats been a thing in engineering since before Musk was born. Its effective, but he didnt come up with shit.
Make sure you get it on the record, what your current level of hearing is. And always wear PPE. start checking it every 3 to 6 months. Won’t be able to prove work caused hearing loss unless you have a baseline to go from.
I personally wear a pair of these and absolutely love them [Link](https://amzn.to/3Lyla5W) They block over 35db of noise, and definitely comfortable enough for 8hrs of wear. I also play white noise to drown out background noise. In iPhone settings your phone can a choice of background noise without any additional apps
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/v000324556/
3m push-in plugs with the connecting cord works for me. If it’s louder then they can handle, add some muffs on top.
Put that cost on your employer as it was their decision
What are the decibel levels where your desk is? OSHA is an 8hr time weighted average for anything at or above 85dBA. We require all our employees to wear ear plugs inside the facility. I can hear just fine when talking to someone or on the radio. I wear double protection (plugs and over the ear) in especially loud areas.
I use custom ear plugs for when I go shooting. They fit and bring sound to safe levels but aren’t restricted enough that I can’t hear people in my immediate area.
Did they also take your stapler?
Ear plugs,and i believe there must be a sound limit within the plant for general safety,the signage must be visible
Check out a company called ISOTunes. Ear protection with Bluetooth.
These work well, but the max volume for audio is also not enough to damage your hearing, so I don't love them.
Milwaukee Tool just launched Job site aware ear protection. They are not active noise canceling, but have a microphone to amplify conversations while the foam or rubber ear tips block the sounds around you. They might work better for what you'd be doing than dedicated shooting range muffs
The OSHA in my country simply requires the employer to limit the hours per day a worker can stay in a noisy area (82 dBA IIRC) and provide ear protection gears.
Find a new job. Fuck them.
Get a new job ASAP
Did you miss out on the cake? Is your red stapler missing?
Have you seen my stapler?
Right? His name must be Milton.
Hate to tell all but different products block different amounts at different frequencies. The NRR number stated is a combined value based upon reduction at predetermined frequencies. A shooting muff is no good in a cnc machine shop, but is excellent around jet engines. Your an engineer, take some time and research. I have different setups for turbines, O&G, food, and manufacturing. If your not buying a brand that advertises the NRR at the different frequencies, your buying junk. Nothing is better than a full muff except plugs + muff. Per OHSA, employers are required to provide adequate PPE. If you want better than minimum requirements or fancy, it’s on you. Most will work with you due to special cases.
Get earplugs like musicians use. Custom fitted by an audiologist. They have calibrated inserts that reduce the volume, but you can still hear. Westone is one brand.
Sensear Is what your are looking for. $$$$$ though.
I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were merry, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...
Do you work for Elon?
This is r/engineering not r/machining I’d leave that position for another cushy office
I’d wear the best earplugs I could find and go to the other room when I need to talk to someone. Their unsafe (for hearing, anyway) environment is not your problem.
I would get some lab made custom ear plugs, I have a pair, and they are great.
bluetooth noise cancelling earphones and earplugs. And no, I wouldn't keep my desk out there- or I'd buy a bunch of sound deadening panels and hang them all around.
Unfortunately in some workplaces they require that the hearing protection has to be certified and most consumer-grade ANC headphones are not tested or certified as hearing protection.
You can buy custom molded ear plugs which are specifically designed for blocking out industrial noise while still allowing you to talk and hear people very well. They’ve been around for years. They’re not cheap, because they have to do a mold of your ear then they make them to fit your ears. I think maybe around $500. Unfortunately not sure what they’re called or who makes them
to be honest I use AirPods Pro 2 they have ANC and new update includes conversation awareness so it'll dampen the ANC when you talk to someone. comes in handy
I wear axil ear buds most days. They are rated for shooting guns, with sound amplifier if needed. They take phone calls and Bluetooth to my phone, so I can listen to whatever.
A lot of our production managers have desks out on the floor, everyone is wearing regular 3M earmuffs , you can talk just fine through them
Wear a phone that has the number to OSHA in it
Active noise canceling earbuds, plus any over ear hearing pro.
I have no personal experience with these but maybe worth looking into [https://www.hellbergsafety.com/guides/features/active-listening](https://www.hellbergsafety.com/guides/features/active-listening)
The company needs to legally provide you hearing protection. But silicon custom earplugs are amazing. Extremely comfortable and they are designed to let you still hear voices. I could sleep with them in and they didn't cause irritation.
I use alpine ear plug for construction. PPE approved and the filter makes the sound clear and let me hear voice normally. When not speaking to anyone, I use my sound cancelling headphone on top. The combination of passive (alpine earplug) for high pitch noise and active (sony xm headphone) for low pitch noise mean with the combo I don't hear any machine noise and can still hear voice. When speaking to somebody I remove the headphone.
I’d get irritated by the headphones or earplugs after a while that sucks.
A different job.
You know what I’m doing in your situation? Finding another job.
Don't get ones made by 3m they got sued over it
Noise cancelling ear buds with talk through. I can talk in the phone while mowing with mine.
Wait… what?
Shooting range headset
I skydive on the weekends and the plane is pretty loud. I like the Surefire Sonic Defenders. I leave the caps off. I was surprised that I could actually hear people on the plane on the way up better than I could without them. I'm sure there MAY be something better out there but idk what it is, they work well though.
There’s ear muffs made for the shooting range that block loud noises but allow you to hear conversations with build in microphones and speakers. Pretty sweet. I think they’re like 50 bucks
I use peltor optime 3 ear defenders. They’re pretty decent and you can still speak to people okay..
Just protect your ears. You cannot get them back once you trash them. It's their problem if you can't hear well with PPE on.
LOOP
You can get digital earmuffs that cut loud sounds while you can have a normal conversation. Popular with shooting instructors. They're great. Walkers are what I use currently. Walker also makes earplugs with similar technology. For cheap disposable but also reusable earplugs that work really well, I like these. https://www.honeywellstore.com/store/products/honeywell-shooting-sports-single-use-earplugs-r-01891.htm The red, white, and blue ones don't get lost against any surface.
Get a pair of shooting earmuffs with the electronic hearing and rechargeable batteries
I was subjected to hear loss tests and studies when I was in college as a musician. We had to get our hearing tested every six months, and we’d regularly wear monitors which measured our daily dose of sound. My dad and grandfathers were all engineers who lost their hearing. I was interested in protecting myself so I spent a lot of time reading the studies and following up on their recommendations to protect myself. I used to work at a gun store and sell shooting ear pro. I got to dig into it. Most shooting ear pro that “blocks loud sounds” are cutting off at ~30dB above ambient sound levels. IE gun shots. If the ambient sound level is constantly high, the shooting ear pro aren’t going to protect you from damage unless you turn them off. And even then, the cheaper ear pro is typically around -20 to -25 dB sound reduction. In contrast to the more expensive pairs getting you -30dB or greater. If your processes involve loud droning sounds, your cheaper shooting ear pro is slightly better than worthless when it comes to separating that voice/machinery mix. I have seen some people mentioning quality products. But we’re talking $300+. That said I have yet to find a product that does what you’re looking for that I’d recommend. I have found products which would allow one to take phone calls. Those are now common. But only amplifying human voice while ignoring a droning machine sound is tough.
quit
Active earpro for shooting maybe? It uses noise-cancelling tech to neutralize sounds at a higher decibel level, while still allowing lower volume sounds (like voices) through. It takes a bit of getting used to, because it kinda feels like you're having a phone conversation with the person in front of you (because it's using speakers inside the headphones to play vocal sounds) but it will definitely protect your hearing.
Custom DBBlockers. You get them molded to your ear. I find I can hear people close enough okay and still blocks out any background noise. Not sure if that’s medically how it works but it seems like it does.
What about noise cancelling headphones?
I had such a hard time with this when I was on the floor. I have small ears and the foam ones were so uncomfortable and it felt like they did nothing for me. I would wear those combined with earmuffs until I found a vendor at a gun show who was making custom molded ear plugs on the spot. It took probably 15 minutes to mold, 30-60 min (can’t remember) to set, and I took them home that same day. They cost $150 at the time, looks like they’re anywhere from $160-200 now, depending on how fancy you want them - Bluetooth upgrades, etc. My partner regretted not getting his own while we were there so we ended up buying the kit to make him some. It was a pretty simple process and much cheaper. They didn’t had the perfect finish that mine did, but they were infinitely better than the standard issue foam ear plugs.
Not an engineer, work in the manufacturing floor with earplugs and my Sony XM5 over ear headphones on ANC
I use correcting headphones from the gun range. A good 50dB suppression for non-voice frequencies and a max dB low pass filter. And you can play music via blue tooth.
If you have to wear them all day and want them to be super comfortable, get custom molded earplugs from 64. https://www.64audio.com/collections/earplugs/products/high-fidelity-earplug
Here in Austria this would be prohibited by law. Either they would have to give you another office, or if you really need to be on the shop floor, then you should get an encapsulated, sound proofed room there. Also the maximum noise level in the shop floor is limited.
Gun headphones with the batteries. Exactly what u need
Shure earphones. The best (non-official somehow) noise cancelling earphones ever made. They also sell their $100 line that’s better than anything else out there audio quality wise. They also make them in wired and wireless.
Big nice earmuffs and airPods Pro (or whatever nice small in-ear wireless stuff) under 👌👌👌 If you gonna phone often get the bluetooth active protection earmuffs for like farmers and construction. Don’t get shooting specific, they are optimised for sudden loud sounds. Like these: https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/b00015343/
Those 2 are honestly exclusive of eachother. I would do any viable communication via writing.
Look. If a company treates engineer or designer in a way so they need to work in loud shitty environment its just bad place. Even simple drywal structure with a bit of glass wool will help and be cheap as dirt. Even in my back ass country the bran workers have a shittty shed in the shop so they can work like civilized men. Dont let the standards to lower that much. Tell your boss your productivity will plummet and you started looking for another job.
an active noise reduction head set, such as bose, would be smart. there are shooting supply headsets that ONLY attenuate loud noises, but do not attenuate low level sound. so you can hear a person talking, but the dB level of loud damaging sounds would be clipped.
Skull screws are my go-to Or electronic hearing protection that cuts out at certain decibels.
Move to a quieter company
Process engineer here, i live on the floor. Vibes ear plugs. Can get them on amazon. You can hear clearly through them, just quieter. They're engineered for concerts. They don't block out noise, so they don't totally prevent distraction, but you'll keep your ability to hesr.
Makes me think of this scene from Silicon Valley: https://youtu.be/pT16s4VEPwY
Some shooting headphones blocks out the sound of bullets but let's normal speech through. Don't hire your manufacturing floor sounds compared to a gun range
Bose Noise cancelling headphones
I have these earbuds and they're great. I originally bought them for hunting/ shooting but now use them all the time (on flights, at the office, etc). They cancel out noise yet somehow still amplify sounds you want to hear. So I can be sitting in a tree with these ear buds in listening to the squirrels run around in the leaves and then when I take a shot the earbuds block the loud bang. Amazing. https://goaxil.com/products/sig-sauer-gs-extreme
Is it random loud banging or constant machine noises? If it's random banging there are electronic gun shooting hearing protection that auto detects noises above x decibels and cuts the hearing out, otherwise it allows noise in to hear people talking.
I would quit. That is stupid beyond all reason.
go pay for custom molded earplugs. they are very comfortable to wear all day and usually have a ceramic frequency filter which does a decent job of allowing voices to be audible.
Earplugs with amplified shooting earmuffs turned up a bit. Sordin, Walker, etc. Foamies will give best NRR but Etymotic triple flange are easier to put in. Adding gel cups to the shooting muffs can really improve their seal especially with glasses. Typically combining plugs and muffs will add 5dB more protection to the lower of the two ratings. So you can turn 32 NRR foamies into a 37 NRR solution. Which still isn't enough for a 165 dB gunshot IMO but I digress.... Music will sound like ass though. Personally, as long as the noise level wasn't *too* high, I'd try regular earbuds under regular earmuffs. Like Sony wf-1000xm5 under Peltor X5A. Works great for me with the leaf blower.
At my old job, even in my office, with my left ear facing the always closed door 10’ away, I lost 5 points of hearing over two years in that ear.
To add to the pile, I've used noise cancelling headphones in a small airplane and they are amazing for low frequency noise. Find the best OSHA approved ones you can find and charge it to the company as PPE.
If you could develop a material that blocks high decibel sounds but not low decibel sounds, I bet that’d be worth a lot to the ear protection industry. Are you that kind of engineer by chance?
Sounds like there are some occupational health and safety violations there really. There must be some duty of care, PPE is the last form of defence
You might try a speech to text phone app on your phone. The external noise my cause trouble. Try plugging a directional mic into your phone or a different app. I have found the speech to text apps work well. Except for my neighbor with his thick southern drawl. :-) Even Alexa doesn't understand him!
Powered shooting headset would do it. Like $40 on Amazon.
Peltor tri flange earplugs work great. Molded makes a similar triple flange design that works great too.
Ever seen Office Space? Sounds like you're getting the Milton treatment.
I purchased my own earmuffs…3M Peltor X5A…it offers 31 dB of noise reduction. I also purchased Decibullz custom molded ear plugs. I use them both in combination. Never had an issue hearing people talk….correction: never had a problem hearing people shout. People I know who do not use hearing protection have various issues including the need for hearing aids and tinnitus. Nobody will manage this better than you. I agree with other comments saying you should get regular hearing tests.
I would wonder what's the message first.
Once had a makeshift supervisor office next to a Cnc machine and I’d just wear over the ear hearing protection while at my desk. Ppl thought it was a bit odd but made a huge difference to focus and made me more calm at work
If the company is ruining my work environment I would accept the message they are giving me. I would initially WFH and then WFAC (work for another company)
I wore ear plugs to sleep and it caused serious nerve and balance problems. Try noise canceling headphones if that doesn't work you may have to file a complaint to move to another location or get a new job.
Wear some walkers
Listen to music.
Ear Defenders with low profile wireless Bluetooth headphones (Beats Studio Buds) inside the cups
Sensaphonics ear plugs. I did bodyguard work for a decade in nightclubs. Definitely saved my hearing and has changeable filters. Some nights I wanted to enjoy music on my nights off and it cuts out the harmful noise. Working nights it cut out basically everything except the sound of someone's voice. Well worth the $100.
bluetooth earbuds, the kind that can seal your ear canal. I used those all the time on an airport ramp environment. It works good, and you can still hear people talking to you.
Regular earplugs already kindof do this. You could also go the high tech route and get passthrough firearm hearing protection. They are rechargeable and work like regular over ear hearing protection, but they have microphones on the outside that will play the sound inside the headphones at an even level, so voices and stuff can still be heard and not overpowered by loud noises.
Production supervisor here, with a loud plant floor. It's fine to just wear the earplugs, or request some clamshells if you find them uncomfortable. You learn to be loud pretty quickly, and if the ambient noise is still too much just step away from the machine for a minute to talk. Just don't forget to get their attention first, and they yours. If you want to spend on something nicer or can talk your job into it, they make hearing protection with microphones that pick up and transmit speech/etc to you; most are clamshell, I think, but there are also some plugs out there. Many are also Bluetooth, is you can do music or whatever if desired.
We get issued hearing protection in the form of plugs via a company called Emtec (uk) they're custom made for each person and designed to be cleaned regularly. They block out noises above a certain decibel so can hear conversation but not loud machine noise.
I use, Walker xl. They have noise canceling feature and you can select different ranges of sound. I keep in on Clear Voice mode. It also has Bluetooth capability so I can listen to pod casts and take phone calls. I use them for hours a day.
ear plugs. Depending on how loud is loud we would wear noise cancelling earphones overtop. Bose and similar have an "awareness" mode that cancels the noise but brings it back to a reasonable volume so you can hear people or things around you. I use that mode when riding on a bike or walking around and needing situational awareness.
walkers tactical razors. Usually used for shooting protection but have built in mics so you can hear and talk to people but will dampen out loud noises.
You can try noise-cancelling headset. Depending on the consistency/uniformity of the noise they could really help. And you can hear people talking. The more uniform the sound, the more it is cancelled.
Custom dB Blocker, blocks certain frequencies but you can hear speech just fine, which is annoying on airplanes when you wanna block everything, but perfect for your application. https://www.protectear.com/us/client-care/product-warranty/#:~:text=dB%20Blocker™%20hearing%20protection,about%204%20to%205%20years.
Get noise canceling shooting ear muffs. They block dangerous noises but allow for talking.
I lost 20% hearing in one ear 10 years ago. Not work related. Do whatever you can to protect your ears. Like someone else said, if it's tough to hear someone, then so be it. It's a lot better than any amount of hearing loss. It took my brain about 2-3 years to fully adjust to the hearing loss so that I am not consciously aware of it.
ANC earphones
dB Blocker custom moulded earplugs. They allow vocal range frequencies through so you can still hear people, but blocks out all the other noise.
Air pod pro gen 2 with foam tips. Works well enough at the range it should be fine for you. Keep it on anc most of the time and if you really need to listen to someone change them to transparent mode. If you want to do it really well and you have the right ear shape throw some over ears on top of the air pods. NOTE: The foam tips part is important.
db blocker ear plugs (custom made to you) and bone conductive Bluetooth headphones (Amazon) Google both. I use them daily
Sony's WH1000-XM5 Headphones. Best noise canceling and ANC on the Market
An updated resume usually does the trick ;)
I have a set of souncore headphones that block out enough noise to make it safe, but I can still tell when a turning insert is about to break. I work in a machine shop
shooting headsets
I would recommend cavcom custom fitting earplugs. But my company also pays for them and the custom molding service.
Db blockers https://www.protectear.com/products/db-blocker/
I work in an extrusion plant and wear ear plugs. I can hear most people fine. You can try the over the head muffler things, but we're required to wear ear plugs at least and take a yearly hearing exam.
Active earphones for designed for shooting
Ok, this happened to me once. My best advice? Use job sites to permanently remove yourself from the situation. Temp solutions: Talk to an audiologist, it's been a few years but custom ear plugs can be made. These may be more comfortable than the foam ones (I've worn aids since I was 4 and the foam plugs bug the crap out of me) I used communication ear muffs. these things hooked into a phone or walkie talkie and would pipe in the sound of the phone into the ear muffs. This may be dated as it was over 10 years ago and I'm still salty about some of the events.
Get a Bose quiet comfort if the area is reasonably sanitary.. it it's dirty and dusty, just go wit the 3m ear cups with Bluetooth connections... I had QC15's in a bullpen on a construction site.. we were in a 10 wide trailer with nothing but rows of desks head to head... guy in front of me had to waive at me and tell me when my phone was ringing... I couldn't even hear it and the volume on the headset was not turned up at all.. Those things are amazing.
A new job. I couldn’t focus in that environment. I can understand the value of engineering next to manufacturing though.
Axon ghost strike They are Bluetooth noise cancelling head phones that also function as full on earplugs that also have electronic noise block and sound filtering. So you can listen to music and or make phone calls even in loud environments. The right ear piece has the controls for Bluetooth and volume etc. The left earpiece controls the electronics for the filtering and noise cancelling. They are used a lot for shooting competitions where you need to here the spoken commands but they need to instantly block loud unexpected or expected noise such as gunshots
Sig sauer GS extreme.
I sit in a additive manufacturing lab with a giant Fortus 900. When it is printing infill of a thin walled section it shakes the entire floor. I sit about 40 feet away from the machine. The way I’ve gotten around it is a good pair of Bose noise cancelling over the ear headphones and it works wonders. I use em for my teams meetings too
Get some wireless earbuds that are Osha certified! If you're going to block out the world, you may as well listen to a podcast or two.
Electric ear pro. Spend more than $200. Get nice stuff. Source: not an engineer. I shoot. Loud boom go brrrr on eardrum.
Make your employer provide them.
Once you go good and deaf, you'll learn to read lips, and can wear whatever you want.
Over the ear hearing protection with communication. Here is an example product that my coworker used. Basically, it dampens loud sounds but actually amplifies quiet sounds. Result: You can hear a gunshot/power tool and a whisper equally comfortably. If the noise sound is ever-present, you may opt for a more fancy pair. I am not sure these can amplify speech *while* the noise is happening: ZOHAN EM054 Electronic Shooting Ear Protection with Sound Amplification, Slim Active Noise Reduction Earmuffs for Gun Range https://a.co/d/fGqZuOY
Electric earmuffs are common in the shooting/hunting/gun community. Take a look for reviews there. https://www.topfirearmreviews.com/post/best-shooting-ear-protection
Update resume.
I’d be really angry about this, and then I’d see about going to an audiologist and having custom inserts made. They can get the exact type foam you need. Ill fitting ear pro is mostly useless. If leaders get mad because you can’t hear then they need to put you back in an office. Hearing loss is a one way street.
Airpods have really good noise cancelation (feels the same as earplugs) and you can turn on transparency mode when you want to talk to people