Hearing Protection In The Fire Service

[efdcapt115 1,511]

Probably the one area of personal safety that is most commonly overlooked in the fire service is that of hearing protection. But it is extremely important that fire departments and firefighters recognize and maintain awareness, and undertake protective measures for the well being, and preservation of the ability to hear.

It is an invisible danger that too many firefighters are careless and carefree about. We all think our hearing is indestructible. Especially the younger brothers and sisters, who think everything else about their bodies is indestructible as well. But, this is not the case, as you will come to find out in the coming decades. The steps you take today to protect your hearing, could help ensure the quality of life you would like to maintain, is possible in the future.

There is an OSHA Standard for Hearing Protection 29 CFR (1910.95). There is also a hearing protection requirement in NFPA 1500. Here's a link to USFA document regarding the issue:

http://www.phsource.us/PH/OC/FireFighters/fa-118.pdf

It's a dry subject and a dry read for sure.

But your department is required to provide as safe a workplace as possible. How many of you are working for a department that is carefully following the OSHA Standard/NFPA Guideline?

How many of you carry the same awareness to protect your hearing, as much as you protect your breathing in an IDLH wearing SCBA?

Are you practicing and training using power tools, and wearing ear-muffs as well? Is your department providing you with the latest in head-gear for hearing protection? Do your rigs have a set-up of head-gear with communication for everyone aboard? How about for the pump operator?

Practically speaking, it's impossible to protect your hearing at all times on the fireground. But did you know that the striking of the irons produces a decibel level of damaging proportions? Think about how many times you've been the firefighter holding the haligan while another member continually smacked the ax into it. Ever have a slight fuzzy ring in one or both ears after it was done?

The continued exposure to loud and damaging noise takes a cumulative effect over time on your hearing. You can go for years, decades, without noticing any problems.

But your department should be testing your hearing at least once a year. Are they providing that service to you, so you can understand as the years go by how the job is affecting your hearing?

Don't brush this topic aside. There's worse things that can happen to your hearing than going deaf. There's an illness called tinnitus. It's where one day, you start to notice that your hearing is making some kind of noise all by itself. The damage your ears had been taking all along suddenly can't take anymore, and the effect of the damage presents itself as a non-stop, internal, no-cure known, constant noise in your ear/s.

Put those ear-muffs on before you start that partner saw on your daily check. Develop ways to protect yourself, protect your ears, savor your exquisite hearing.

Question for the board: Is your department OSHA compliant regarding hearing protection standards? What do you do personally to protect your hearing while at work?

[JohnnyOV 2]

As someone who is employed in the Occupational Safety field, hearing protection is one of the most overlooked workers safety practices that should be in place. First, one must realize that dB levels are not a liner function (aka for you non-math geeks, a straight line on a graph that goes up on a diagonal) but rather a logarithmic function that as the dB increases, the intensity of the sound increases 10x for every 10 dB increased. 10=10, 20=100, 30=1000, 40=10000......LdB=10 log 10 (P1/P0). That being said, the damage that is done to your ears at 110 dB compared to 100 dB is not 10 times more intense, rather 100 times.

OSHA states that the Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) for noise at 115 dB is 15 minutes per 8 hour work day ( http://www.osha.gov/dts/osta/otm/noise/standards_more.html ). Now a Q-siren at full blast at 10 feet directly in front of the siren experiences 123 dB of noise. So you're riding around in the rig going to 3 runs a day with the windows down and no hearing protection on, with the siren pegged for 5 minutes for each response and you've now reached what OSHA calls the PEL which is the cut off point where a worker needs to stop the task, and not return to the same duty until the next day.

Now you say "well our districts only a 1/2 square mile, and it never takes us more then 1:30 to get anywhere." OSHA has something called "continuous noise" and "impact noise." to make everyone's lives miserable....for continuous noise AKA siren and Q going and pegged, the limit that a worker can be exposed to is 115 dB for "an extended period of time," the 123 dB that the Q puts out clearly surpasses this limit, thus exposing the worker to harmful noise. Impact noise is an acute, impulsive noise and workers should not be exposed to anything above 140 dB. Not sure the dB of striking irons, but I'm sure it's up there.

Now after you've exposed yourself to damaging noise on the trip to the scene, you pull up and its a Rippin Yob, and you're the pump operator, you throw the engine into pump and head over to the pump panel to start pumping. You're there for a good 45 min with the engine running real hard and you can barely hear the radio over the noise. I'd be willing to bet that the engine noise alone is far exceeding the PEL.

A general rule of thumb, is if you have to raise your voice over any equipment or machinery to talk to someone, there should be hearing precautions taking place to ensure hearing safety.

We could cover this topic for hours, and I hope what I said makes sense, but now I have to get back to work.....

[JohnnyOV 2]

Futher....

The employer must administer a continuing, effective hearing conservation program whenever employee noise exposures are at or above an eight hour time-weighted average (TWA) of 85 dBA or, equivalently, a dose of 50 percent. [1910.95©(1)]

So depending on how busy your department is, determines whether or not a hearing protection plan needs to be put in place. Remember though, OSHA is the bottom line when it comes to workers safety. Their requirements are bare minimums for a safety program in the workplace. Companies and FD's that implement safety programs that exceed the OSHA requirements are more likely to experience less workman's comp cases, fewer OSHA recordable incidents and far fewer serious and fatal incidents.

[Remember585 815]

Great posts! Thanks for shedding some light on this overlooked issue.

[Alpinerunner 61]

Great topic. One easy thing to do is roll the window up! I always roll my window up as I'm pulling out of the bay. It makes it easier to hear radio traffic, and on the same note, I hate when I'm trying to hear a radio transmission from another unit and their siren is drowning them out.

Of course the headphones with built in mic is best, but the windows are an easy first step.

[efdcapt115 1,511]

Question for the board: Is your department OSHA compliant regarding hearing protection standards? What do you do personally to protect your hearing while at work?

Are there any departments in Westchester County that are complying with the OSHA Standard or the NFPA recommendation with regard to hearing protection?

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

Timely subject for me. Durning the last 2 1/2 years we [ engine 58 truck comm ] have been asking around about headsets on rigs and was shocked by the remarks that we got. It came out that about 50% liked them and 50% did not. It had nothing to do with age or how long one was riding a rig, they all said we use them all the time or we don't like them and never put them on. I have been driving fire trucks for 38 years now, So I gave my guys the chance to save there Hearing. Firecom 3010 in the new Engine 58!

[efdcapt115 1,511]

I was thinking about fireground operations, and the difficulty one encounters when trying to enhance hearing protection, while not being constrained in any way, or put at a disadvantage by "blocking" hearing during operations.

The interior view of PCFD's new pumper showing the Firecom 3010 is great. Every rig in Westchester County should be outfitted as such. So that covers hearing protection while in the cab and responding; I imagine there is also a headset at the pump panel for the MPO, so that firefighter is covered once he settles in to maintain pumps.

Great. But now what about the firefighters who disembark the apparatus and go to work? First thing is any saws should have noise cancelling headphones attached, yet easily removable so the saw operator doesn't have to think to grab them out of a box in a compartment (which is all so common, and mostly forgotten). It's the noises in the upper frequencies that do so much damage; bringing up a Partner saw equipped with a metal cutting blade and attacking locks and roll-down doors to gain entry is extremely hazardous to the ears. Blade cutting into metal; doesn't it just make you cringe thinking about the sound? So a simple solution to facilitate the saw operator throws on the ear-muffs, is to have them attached to the saw.

Another hearing-saving idea: the irons are commonly attached these days, with the ax and haligan interlocked and wrapped with a velcro strap. Why not attach a headset to the irons as well? The member holding the haligan inches away from his ear as he is crouched down and instructing his partner to drive the tool with the ax; now he can pop the headset on (underneath the rear of the helmet, slide it onto the back of your head and over your ears).

These are two of the major noises that will do serious damage to the hearing. Both can be addressed with equipment currently available, just raise the awareness level and make it part of the SOP of cutting or forcing entry!

What the fire service truly needs to be developed is an "in-the-ear" occupational hearing protector. Westone is a company that manufactures in-the-ear hearing protection for many applications; musicians, industry and they even have a military model now:

http://www.westone.com/military/acces

What the fire service needs is something like these musician style hearing protectors:

These are molded to the individual's ears. They have changeable "filters" that provide different levels of protection. But the main point here is that they do not restrict one's ability to hear; they simply cut out the dangerous higher frequencies that do the most severe damage to the hearing.

ATTENTION WESTONE: Please develop in-ear hearing protection specific for the fire service; using heat resistant materials. This could revolutionize hearing protection for firefighting! How about we start mass e-mailing them with the request? Westone@Westone.com

[Bnechis 3,961]

Great topic. One easy thing to do is roll the window up! I always roll my window up as I'm pulling out of the bay. It makes it easier to hear radio traffic, and on the same note, I hate when I'm trying to hear a radio transmission from another unit and their siren is drowning them out.

When I was 1st learning to drive, all of the Sr. FF's said to always roll the window Down or at least crack it open (in the winter) so you could hear other vehicles, ff's etc.

[Bnechis 3,961]

Are there any departments in Westchester County that are complying with the OSHA Standard or the NFPA recommendation with regard to hearing protection?

The law requires providing for PPE and having policies. But the law also requires that employees must actually follow those policies. The biggest hurdle are 1) getting members to follow the policies and 2) getting the officers to be officers and not worry about being buddies.

[Bnechis 3,961]

Timely subject for me. Durning the last 2 1/2 years we [ engine 58 truck comm ] have been asking around about headsets on rigs and was shocked by the remarks that we got. It came out that about 50% liked them and 50% did not. It had nothing to do with age or how long one was riding a rig, they all said we use them all the time or we don't like them and never put them on. I have been driving fire trucks for 38 years now, So I gave my guys the chance to save there Hearing. Firecom 3010 in the new Engine 58!

We have been having a similar experience. 3 of our 9 rigs now have the firecom system and most members do not like it. We did change from the under the helmet style to over the head and that did help a little bit. The next engine has been ordered with it and will include the wireless pump operators unit (a 1st for us) Everyone how saw that felt it would be used, sice it is almost impossible for the pump operator to hear the radio.

[jack10562 414]

The law requires providing for PPE and having policies. But the law also requires that employees must actually follow those policies. The biggest hurdle are 1) getting members to follow the policies and 2) getting the officers to be officers and not worry about being buddies.

Capt, I was just going to say that. The employer is responsible for providing their employees with suitable personal protective equipment according to the job hazard matrix, and it's up to the employee to know when and how to use it.

I know of many occasions when I was supervising my crews, they needed to be "reminded" to put on ear muffs or wear goggles, etc, while working a covered task.

Annual OSHA refresher courses are required precisely for this reason.

[x129K 1,393]

Great topic. One easy thing to do is roll the window up! I always roll my window up as I'm pulling out of the bay. It makes it easier to hear radio traffic, and on the same note, I hate when I'm trying to hear a radio transmission from another unit and their siren is drowning them out.

Of course the headphones with built in mic is best, but the windows are an easy first step.

When I worked for Empress full time and Alamo (RIP) per-diem, I did the exact opposite...I would keep my window down a bit, even in the winter, so i could hear oncoming emergency vehicle sirens at intersection/junctions. (Yes, i still practiced defensive driving and excerecised due regard, but more than once it saved our asses. )

As the legendary Billy Rothschild always said - "Yeild to tonnage"

[Bnechis 3,961]

As the legendary Billy Rothschild always said - "Yeild to tonnage"

Legendary........OMG I ould have fun with that. Thanks, now I know I've been around for ever.

[x129K 1,393]

Legendary........OMG I ould have fun with that. Thanks, now I know I've been around for ever.

LOL...yeah...

[Alpinerunner 61]

When I was 1st learning to drive, all of the Sr. FF's said to always roll the window Down or at least crack it open (in the winter) so you could hear other vehicles, ff's etc.

That is a good point... but wouldn't headphones or ear plugs have the same effect? No matter what method of ear protection you're using, if you're damping the sound of your own siren, you're damping the sound of other vehicle's horns and sirens, too.

With the windows up and no headphones, I like that I can still easily hear a yell from my officer about a vehicle he sees (and wouldn't have the time to push the 'talk' button on the headset).

[ajsbear 11]

Legendary........OMG I ould have fun with that. Thanks, now I know I've been around for ever.

The laws of gross Tonnage.

[Bnechis 3,961]

That is a good point... but wouldn't headphones or ear plugs have the same effect? No matter what method of ear protection you're using, if you're damping the sound of your own siren, you're damping the sound of other vehicle's horns and sirens, too.

With the windows up and no headphones, I like that I can still easily hear a yell from my officer about a vehicle he sees (and wouldn't have the time to push the 'talk' button on the headset).

The drivers headphones do not provide hearing protection, they are single ear or one ear open. The purpose of them is you can hear the radios without blasting them and you have intercom with everyone on the rig. its voice activated so to talk to the officer or crew, you do not have to hit the button. to transmit on the radio you need to hit the PTT button, but thats less effort than picking up the mic and hitting that button.

[efdcapt115 1,511]

That is a good point... but wouldn't headphones or ear plugs have the same effect? No matter what method of ear protection you're using, if you're damping the sound of your own siren, you're damping the sound of other vehicle's horns and sirens, too.

With the windows up and no headphones, I like that I can still easily hear a yell from my officer about a vehicle he sees (and wouldn't have the time to push the 'talk' button on the headset).

In my opinion, it's great to have these in-the-rig communication/hearing protection systems. But unless you're standing directly in front of a Federal Q siren, I do not believe the in-cab noise (with the exception of older rigs with open jump seats) poses as much of a threat to hearing health as do other functions on the fireground.

In late 2004 I became ill with tinnitus. It's coming up on six years now; pretty much constant noise in my right ear. When it's bad it's in both ears. I only became aware of the hearing loss and damage I had sustained AFTER the "tinny-ear" began. We did not receive yearly hearing exams as part of our annual physicals. We should have; I might have been made aware of my hearing loss before the tinnitus. I might have been able to continue on the job. Tinnitus cut my career short by at least ten years.

That's why I've thought so much about the issue of fireground hearing protection; beyond the ride on the rig. I've had many years to reflect on the should-haves. The fire service is in dire need of an adapted technology to provide all with the constant/effective protection while operating on the fireground. That's why I ask you all to give it priority; use what you have available to you now. Use it consistently. And hopefully companies like Westone will pay attention when they receive the e-mails asking them to develop a fire service specific in-the-ear hearing protector.

I have Westones now. I use them when riding my motorcycle, or anything else where I'm getting exposed to loud noises. They eliminate the high frequency sounds, the ambient noise, and what you are left with is a more focused ability to hear what you need to hear. The noises from the saws, and the irons, and the ear-piercing alarm systems blaring at you at 3AM in the high-school while you track down the activation; this is the stuff that is killing our inner-ears. In the ear protection can only work for the fireground if you can still hear through them. 33db foam ear-plugs aren't going to work. You won't hear the radio, your partner inside, or a victim crying out faintly in the smoke. Westone type in-the-ear protectors is the answer!!

[Alpinerunner 61]

The drivers headphones do not provide hearing protection, they are single ear or one ear open. The purpose of them is you can hear the radios without blasting them and you have intercom with everyone on the rig. its voice activated so to talk to the officer or crew, you do not have to hit the button. to transmit on the radio you need to hit the PTT button, but thats less effort than picking up the mic and hitting that button.

Well then ours are a different model because they cover both ears, and the driver and officer have two PTT buttons, one for radio, and one for intercom. The two backseat headsets have one PTT button for intercom.

EFDCAPT115, I'm very sorry to hear that you had to cut short your career. I will certainly take more care of my ears going forward.

Edited August 23, 2010 by Alpinerunner

[efdcapt115 1,511]

Well then ours are a different model because they cover both ears, and the driver and officer have two PTT buttons, one for radio, and one for intercom. The two backseat headsets have one PTT button for intercom.

EFDCAPT115, I'm very sorry to hear that you had to cut short your career. I will certainly take more care of my ears going forward.

Thanks bro. No worries anymore, what's done is done. If this thread gets you and hopefully others to make it a priority to protect your hearing, then that's a success.

Stay well.

[wraftery 1,275]

Add a little common sense can't hurt either.

Lower those I-pods and mp3 players.

How about the gin mills...if you can feel the vibes of the band in your chest cavity, it's a tad too loud.

You probably don't have to lean on that Federal at 2am and your light is green. You've got the right of way.

You can also disconnect the rig's siren and in it's place use the guy who whines about everything

[16fire5 693]

We check our SCBAs at the start of every tour (0900 and 1800). And when I say check it's not look at the gauge and make sure it's there. The cylinder is turned on a hit is taken through the facepiece and the integrated pass is run through it's paces. Another bad sound I'm sure. But there is absolutly no excuse for not having ear protection for this and I know my guys wore them when checking also when starting the saws. While we don't have the FireComm system I did have one chauffeur who would use the ear muffs on response and I will say he heard pretty much anything I told him during responses.

I agree with you Cap nothing bothers my ears more than the irons bashing together in a tight hall.

[frenchie477 2]

We currently run David Clarkes on all of our rigs and, at least in my station, we use them faithfully. We can always hear oncoming emergency vehicle, the portable radio I wear when talking to EMS radio and the benefits of the intercom system. All in all it's a great system. We also are religious about hearing protection while running saws and fans and anything else loud like that. I'd like to keep my ears working for the next 30 or so...