My Music Device Vs My Safety

My Music Device vs My Safety Today you are “Considered Cool” when you walk about doing your daily things while listening to the music, etc through your smart phone, MP3 player or other device’s ear phones. The issue is these so called “Cool Folk” are not just walking around listening to their music, they are shutting out their surrounding noises, sounds & warnings which can impact on their & others personal safety. Recently employees in industry are insisting that it is safety to listen to their music & other devices as they are using ear phones & so do not disturb the other employees. YES BUT ... the employer has to provide & maintain a safe & health working environment which implies there must be reduced risks in the workplace. Secondly most music & device users have the sound volume turned up, where volume 4 on a walkman, for example, is at an 85dB(A) sound level, which is the sound level where legally the wearing of hearing protection is required to be used. Why is it important to hear such noises, sounds & warnings in the workplace?  The “Cool Folk” are unlikely to hear a vehicle hooter behind them, & especially if they are driving themselves.

 The “Cool Folk” are unlikely to hear a machine alarm, like for example a crane operator did not hear the cable over-wind alarm & when the crane cable broke on a construction site the load fell killing a worker on the ground.

 The “Cool Folk” are unlikely to clearly hear an instruction or a warning during normal conversation in the workplace, & so could do the job wrong or be injured, for example.

 The “Cool Folk” are unlikely to be aware of the sound in their surroundings & so will only be aware of thing they see in front of them, which could also result in some form of injury or worse.

The issue is without an adequate ability to adequately hear communications the “Cool Folk’s” safety can or will be compromised.

THE INSTITUTE OF SAFETY MANAGEMENT, THE PROFESSIONAL BODY OF CHOICE FOR THE DISCERNING OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY PRACTITIONER www.iosm.co.za Consider the above graph showing noise interference with speech communications at various distances, where the loudness of possible communication by voice is compared the distance between the talker (voice) & the listener under normal background work environment noise conditions and without any music or similar devices being listened to at the time.

These music & similar devices have ear pieces which the Cool Folks fit into the ear canal & in so doing this restricts or blocks the other sounds being heard. Often earphone type muffs are used which further restricts possible external sound hearing. The graph above shows the communication effort & communication distances without device ear pieces or earphone muffs being used.

At a 3.05m distance, a voice communication of some 57dB(A) will be necessary to permit easy communication, while a loud shout is needed to possibly communicate at a distance of 3.05m in a 75dB(A) noise environment.

Assuming the Cool Folk person’s device volume is at 70dB(A) the person communicating from a 3.05m distance will need to shout & is still unlikely to be heard by the device listener. With the device’s volume is at 85dB(A) or more, a shout will be necessary for the Cool Folk person to hear the communication. In this case the talker would probably have to touch the device listener to get the person’s attention and the listener would need to remove the ear phone to hear the communication.

THE INSTITUTE OF SAFETY MANAGEMENT, THE PROFESSIONAL BODY OF CHOICE FOR THE DISCERNING OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY PRACTITIONER www.iosm.co.za Remember that when our hearing is subjected to loud noise for a period the hairs in the cochlea suffer deformation causing a threshold shift which often causes a buzzing hearing sound in the ears. This represents is the beginning of possible hearing loss due to noise level over exposure over a period of time. Hearing loss becomes permanent when the cochlea hairs break off at specific sound frequencies destroying all the noise levels at that frequency.

The use of music and similar devices in a work place where employees could be at risk of not receiving adequate communications while working can be hazardous to their safety and so should be prohibited by employers.

THE INSTITUTE OF SAFETY MANAGEMENT, THE PROFESSIONAL BODY OF CHOICE FOR THE DISCERNING OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY PRACTITIONER www.iosm.co.za