Ear protection

ScottM

ScottM

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iBazinga!
We got another 2" of snow this morning to add to our 20.5" inches from earlier this week. No biggie at all, but while I was out using the snow blower my neighbor stopped to ask me a question that got me thinking. You see my snow blower is loud! It is a typical Toro 2-cycle single stage snow blower, at the time it was the largest single stage thrower that Toro made. When I use it I wear a David Clark passive noise attenuator headsets, the type without any ability to plug into an intercom. I started wearing them when after using the thing my ears would ring.

My neighbor stopped by to ask why I wear those things. I told him to prevent hearing injury and said they looked kind of dorky and he wouldn't wear them. My neighbor is a bit of an idiot so I just brushed off his comments. But his question did make me wonder how many of you wear hearing protection when using loud machinery? As pilots we seem obsessed with protecting our hearing while in the cockpit, do we also care when using the mower or snow throwers?
 
I should. My John Deere is loud. Earplugs if nothing else. Do it flying, do it shooting... Always seem to forget when snowblowing.
 
ScottM said:
We got another 2" of snow this morning to add to our 20.5" inches from earlier this week. No biggie at all, but while I was out using the snow blower my neighbor stopped to ask me a question that got me thinking. You see my snow blower is loud! It is a typical Toro 2-cycle single stage snow blower, at the time it was the largest single stage thrower that Toro made. When I use it I wear a David Clark passive noise attenuator headsets, the type without any ability to plug into an intercom. I started wearing them when after using the thing my ears would ring.

My neighbor stopped by to ask why I wear those things. I told him to prevent hearing injury and said they looked kind of dorky and he wouldn't wear them. My neighbor is a bit of an idiot so I just brushed off his comments. But his question did make me wonder how many of you wear hearing protection when using loud machinery? As pilots we seem obsessed with protecting our hearing while in the cockpit, do we also care when using the mower or snow throwers?
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I use hearing protection anytime I'm using our mowers, leaf blower, edger, etc. I just think it is a good practice - the riding mower is particularly loud and i only have one set of ears. Besides, my family has a history of hearing loss - dunno if it is genetic or environmental, but I'm aware of the issue and do what I can to preserve my hearing.

I also wear eye protection when appropriate.
 
When I had a driveway and lawn I wore ear protection(regular passive shooting earmuffs) when mowing/weedwhacking(+goggles) or snowblowing. Running a saw for a handful of cuts I might not put on ear protection but anything more than a minute and I would. Caring what you look like while snowblowing is a not really concern for normal males.
 
I do- lawn mower and leaf blower. My snow blower is actually fairly well muffled.
 
I use earmuffs designed for target shooting for snow-blowing (also help keep my ears warm) and earplugs for lawn-mowing. I also require this for my kids but I doubt it will make a difference since they are determined to ruin their hearing with iPods and video game headsets. I wish I could buy stock in the company that makes hearing implants but it looks like I will have to settle for stock in a hearing aid company.
 
I wear a set of ear muffs I got to use at the gun range. I use 'em with my Tim Allen monster back pack leaf blower and my 11 hp 2-stage 36" snow blower. I've spent my whole life turning gas into fun so why should blowing leaves (at 250 mph) or throwing snow into the next county be any different?
 
I always wear earplugs when riding my lawn tractor or weedeating. I don't have a snowblower. It's still the mostly silent shovel for me.
 
Yeah. You remind me I need to wear hearing protection.

I was smug as I wore my Pilot 1229s for ANR with the self-contained battery in the earcup when riding my John Deere.

Then I screwed up hitting the back/forward pedals and the phones flew off and I drove over them. $200 repair. Hey, I needed a new battery anyway.

I bought a Peltor passive hearing protector for a whole $20. I put my iPhone earbuds in the cups.
 
Oh, yes... I often work on construction sites, and even if I am only using a wrench and crimpers, or even just doing a walk-through, there's always someone next to me cutting tile, concrete or wood, or grinding steel. :rolleyes2: Indoor construction sites can be incredibly noisy with all trades going at it at once... I'm amazed how few people I see wearing ear protection (or respiratory protection, but that's another topic).

I use either shock cups or earplugs. At home, if I'm using any power tool, the ears are covered. I'd rather look dorky than do any more damage on top of what was done in my more self-conscious youth (rock drummer, carpenter, loud concert attendee).
I also mix live sound occasionally, and will sometimes wear earplugs when doing that. I can hear the mix just fine with my ears plugged, if it's the kind of gig where show volume is louder than necessary. If I'm on a follow spot or some other task in front of a PA, I want either earplugs or a two-muff headset, if I have to be on the comm circuit.

If you're young, and only occasionally expose yourself to high-volume, harsh waveforms, it's really not necessary. But frequent exposure over time will mess your hearing up... and it's got little to do with actual damage to the eardrum or other moving parts, so it doesn't have to be painfully loud to hurt you.

Obviously, pilots need to consider this... a good headset is a sound investment (pun intended).
 
I wear hearing protection when using my lawnmower, leaf blower, snowblower, etc etc etc. I find it easiest to use the foam ear plugs and throw them away.
 
I do wear gel ear plugs for my Deere tractor, Stihl line trimmer, and Ariens snow blower. It feels fairly helpful on my tractor, but not so much for my snowblower. You raise a good point. I should probably pull out my shooting muffs for this equipment.
 
I wear David Clark passives for all power tool and small engine use. I wear them when flying commercial jets. Hearing loss is cumulative so it adds up over time. I have very good hearing. What I have lost mostly happened at Deep Purple in 1974. :cornut::D
 
I wear hearing protection for shooting, chain saw work, mowing, etc.

I saw a steady decline in hearing acuity and realized all the time around heavy machinery and powerplants wasn't good. But back in the day it was considered "whimpy" to wear ear plugs on the range.
 
Always have a set or two of foam plugs in my shirt pocket. I left enough hearing with rock concerts in the early 70s to want to save what I have left. ANRs in the plane, any plane.
 
I do, just about all the time. Indeed, as a "non-traditional student" at the local denominational university, chapel is mandatory for at least seven semesters.

Ofttimes a loud "Christian rock" band will be the featured noise source. If I haven't packed a set of E.A.R. brand ear plugs, I will either skip or, in one instance when I wanted to hear the speaker after the music, step out.

Got called on it by the "chapel nazi" that time. I told her, "I am an old man, and am slowly but surely losing all my faculties. The one faculty I have remaining which hasn't shown too much loss is my hearing. I aim to keep it that way." Suffice it to say, she wasn't pleased, and I didn't get credit that day. :rolleyes2:

Not to say I've always been so fastidious about my hearing: Remember several times when (now, this really betrays my age) hanging around the ramp at SGF and watching the Ozark Airlines Fairchild F-227s coming in and out with their RollsRoyce Darts. They were called the "Whistle Pig" for a reason! :hairraise:
 
I simply don't give a poop what anyone thinks about me protecting myself when necessary. I get lots of looks like I'm stupid or crazy and idiotic comments all the time however I would have to deal with the consequences, they don't. (earplugs, motorcycle crash gear, secure seatbelts, etc, eye protection) Then there's the other side of that where people tell me I'm crazy for standing unprotected on the edge of a cliff or doing solo backpacking for weeks on end yet they won't wear seatbelts with 150mph closure rate head to head traffic 3 feet away.

I'm 45 and can still hear a mouse scratch itself at half a mile. Them, usually not so much. Sometimes I'm adapted to quiet to the point that when I'm suddenly dumped into a loud environment, I have a hard time focusing on what one individual is saying to me - I'm not deaf, my hearing is just overloaded for a while.

Shooting and small noisy engines: earplugs and headsets.
Moderately noisy machinery or environments: earplugs at least.
Motorcycle: Earplugs plus a relatively quiet helmet. I simply can't ride without earplugs. I just can't.
Driving short distances: mostly no protection though it depends on the vehicle.
Driving long distances: earplugs and sometimes my DC's.

I found that driving with earplugs and sometimes the headset (motorhome primarily) my endurance is more than tripled before reaching the same level of exhaustion. 4 hours with no protection is tiring. I can go about 12-14 hours in the noisy motorhome before I reached the same level of exhaustion just by wearing earplugs.
 
Ever get tickets for driving with earphones on?
 
Even before I am to read the posts to follow I'm laughing about my cousin "Screech." She was married to Cushing's Richard Olson -- nephew of Christina, as in Wyeth's Christina's World painting -- and Richard nicknamed Judy. While heading offshore to haul lobsters Richard would run the twin diesels at full bore. Over time it affected his hearing, necessitating Judy to speak loudly to him. So she got the nickname about which only the locals back home know the reason.

HR
 
I install foam ear plugs when using the chain saw, weed whacker or any other outdoor equipment sans the tractor.
 
Funny you should ask -- the last time I had the blower out, which was Friday IIRC, I suddenly thought -- "hey, idjit, why on earth aren't you wearing ear protection?? This SOB is loud."

Not like it's anything but a rear-guard action. Frequenting small clubs with loud bands in my 20's did a good job screwing up my hearing. Ahh, the carefree innocence of youth.
 
When I was younger I never wore hearing protection. I laughed at the wusses that did.
Now, I could buy 10 pair of David Clark's for what my hearing aids cost and I still can't hear worth a damn. Your neighbor is worse than an idiot. Was he wearing his sign?
 
I wear hearing protection when doing anything noisy. If I can't talk in a normal tone to someone near it's too loud.
 
I wore my DC noise attenuating headset while using a very loud lawn tractor and a 12 hp leaf blower.

Moved into the City. No need for either here! :cheerswine:


-Skip
 
Zulus with the lawnmower, weed whacker, and blower. In-ear ANR plugs for snowblower use. Usually listening to an aviation podcast!
 
Skip Miller said:
I wore my DC noise attenuating headset while using a very loud lawn tractor and a 12 hp leaf blower.

Moved into the City. No need for either here! :cheerswine:


-Skip
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Ugh. Jocularity aside, it is one more reason I like the country. I remember coming home after my freshman year in college. City to the country (well, suburbs). I couldn't believe how 1) green and 2) quiet everything was.
 
ClimbnSink said:
Ever get tickets for driving with earphones on?
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Nope. Not even pulled over for it either. Then again, most of my driving is not in or even near cities where there are a bazillion police nit picking trivia while ignoring the real problems on the roads. Several sheriff and highway patrol officers have seen me and seem to be ok with it or at least they're not doing anything about it. I just cruise on driving sensibly and all is good.

If I ever do get pulled over for it, I just know I'll get overly silly and ask them if they pull over fire trucks with their crews and drivers wearing DC headsets...that'll probably get me a ticket or at least warned off.

Unless I'm doing serious long duration driving which isn't that often, I just run with earplugs.
 
ScottM said:
My neighbor stopped by to ask why I wear those things. I told him to prevent hearing injury and said they looked kind of dorky and he wouldn't wear them.
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They provide hearing protection for free in noisy work environments, and pretty much everyone wears them... (I'm sure the hearing booth tests they do on their employees helps drive the point home)
 
ClimbnSink said:
Ever get tickets for driving with earphones on?
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No - And I wore my Lightspeeds in the truck a LOT, and still do sometimes in the car. I figure if they ever stopped me for it, I would tell them how the ANR blows away the low-frequency noise of my engine, allowing me to hear their sirens BETTER and since the reason the law was enacted in the first place (long before ANR was invented) was so that people would be able to hear emergency vehicles' sirens and other vehicles' horns and these phones allow me to do that BETTER, they should let me off the hook. :yes: :D


As to the original question, I proudly wear my Lightspeeds on the mower, and listen to music or podcasts. If anyone looks at me funny, I smile and think to them, "Yeah, I'm a PILOT. I don't care what you think of me, because I can do something that's so cool you'll never understand." :)
 
For the short time my blower is on, no. And I'm not likely to do it with a $800 headset. The shooting protectors are much less expensive and are pretty easily acquired.
What is more likely to destroy your hearing are the earbuds people use while listening to music. If someone 10 feet away can hear what you're playing, then you're running it way too loud. Same with your auto stereo. A good measure of whether your music is too loud and might affect your hearing is if you can't carry on a normal conversation without turning it down or off.
 
If I have one of my aviation headsets at home, I'll wear that while riding the lawnmower.

It seems that the use of good ear protection is even a relatively new thing in aviation, much less in the rest of the world. I once asked a retired engineer friend of mine (who did lots of flight testing) about what they did "back in the day" (mostly in the 70s). Did they have headsets? Anything?

"Headsets?! We didn't have any ****ing headsets! All of us wear hearing aids now, why do you think that is?"

Apparently most of the planes they were doing testing in were stripped out bare bones versions that had no interiors, just milk crates. They were even noisier than the production models and there were no intercoms, they didn't wear headsets. He said the Aerostar was the worst of all of them.
 
Somewhere in the aviation collectibles drawer I have a pair of hearing protectors with the TWA insignia on them. When my Mother -- world traveling Event Planner for Carter's Clothing -- was here I saw her remove them from her suitcase.

"What are those for, Ma?"

A dead-pan response: "I suppose if I'm going up in that tin can of yours I'll need them."

HR
 
Your neighbor is suffering from Midwest macho. The same thing that leaves him in a light jacket with no hat or gloves when it's 5 degrees outside.

He probably ignores his seatbelt, too.
 
Definitely - Foam plugs for normal lawnmower/weedeater stuff and of course heavier protection while flying and shooting.
 
Ken Ibold said:
Your neighbor is suffering from Midwest macho. The same thing that leaves him in a light jacket with no hat or gloves when it's 5 degrees outside.

He probably ignores his seatbelt, too.
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You are being too kind. My neighbor suffers from stupidity. The stories I could tell you..... I really do not care what he thinks, I already know that the whole group of them think us strange. I mean we do not park in our front yard, we shovel snow, mow our lawn, do not sit in the driveway revving our car engines, snow mobile engine, motorcycle engines, etc. for hour on end.

I was really curious if we as pilots practice our hearing protection behaviors outside of the cockpit. Seems we mostly do. I must admit that my eye protection behaviors need improving. I really should wear eye protection when mowing. I really do not like to do it with the snow thrower because I often get snow in the face and do not want to deal with cleaning the glasses over and over.
 
ScottM said:
I was really curious if we as pilots practice our hearing protection behaviors outside of the cockpit. Seems we mostly do. I must admit that my eye protection behaviors need improving. I really should wear eye protection when mowing. I really do not like to do it with the snow thrower because I often get snow in the face and do not want to deal with cleaning the glasses over and over.
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I don't do eye protection on the lawn mower, but mine doesn't go fast enough for it to be a big deal. Where I do make a big deal about eye protection is working on cars, specifically underneath them. After a few times that I should have had nasty hospital visits but somehow didn't need one, I've learned my lesson.

The other thing I do typically is wear latex or nitrile gloves when working on cars. It's nice to have lots of grease on the gloves, pull them off, and show up to work the next day with clean hands.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
The other thing I do typically is wear latex or nitrile gloves when working on cars. It's nice to have lots of grease on the gloves, pull them off, and show up to work the next day with clean hands.
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Another good reason is that it helps to stop your skin from coming into some really bad chemicals. My cousins husband has a really obscure cancer and died in his late 40s. He was a car mechanic and the type of cancer he had was correlated extremely well with a common solvent used for the cleaning of car parts. It is very likely that he developed the cancer that killed him from his exposure.
 
Keep inexpensive Philips ANR headsets at both my office and the house for use with snowblowers. They seem to do the trick reasonably well.
 
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