Development Of A Novel Wireless In-Ear Noise Exposure Monitor For The Prevention Of Occupational Hearing Loss

PROJECT SUMMARY ABSTRACT According to the CDCfour million workers go to work each day in damaging noisewhile ten million in the U Ssuffer from noise related hearing lossHearing loss accounted for at leastof occupational illness inand approximately $M is spent annually on workerandapos s compensation for hearing loss disabilityTo address this problememployers are required by law to implement hearing conservation programs for employees at riskPotential risk is determined by measuring cumulative noise exposure using personal noise dosimetersPNDsThese instruments are typically worn on the shoulder as a surrogate position for center of head measurementsThe in ear PNDiPNDTMis a relatively new dosimeter that has signi cant advantages over traditional systems because iPNDsTM measure noise in the ear canal using a microphone located interior to any hearing protectionTraditionallythe protected exposure level is estimated by subtracting the noise reduction ratingNRRof the hearing protection deviceHPDfrom the on the shoulder exposure level which can be an inaccurate estimateThis problem is well documented and contributes to noise induced hearing lossNIHLbecause the employee may be subjected to higher exposure levels than estimatedThe iPNDTM avoids this shortcoming by directly measuring protected exposure when the user is wearing an HPDAlthough these dosimeters provide superior performance and functiononly one is commercially available todayThe lack of popularity of the iPND system is primarily due to wires that connect the earplugs to a dosimetry processorcreating a nuisance and potential snag hazardA wireless iPNDTMwiPNDTMsystem that would solve the aforementioned problems is proposedA relatively new wireless technology can be used to transmit noise level data from a wiPNDTM earplug to a remote processorNovel new features such as wireless LED alertsin ear versus out of ear compensationuse monitoringhealth monitoringautomated data download and cloud processing are provided with this system that will help prevent NIHL and improve acceptance of PNDsThe wiPNDTM earplug is like a Fitbit version of a personal noise dosimeter PROJECT NARRATIVE The aim of the proposed research project is to develop a wireless in ear noise exposure monitoring system that is used to prevent noise induced hearing loss in the workplaceThe system employs a hearing protection earplug with microphone and novel electronics to measure in ear noise levels and actual protected exposure as opposed to estimating the exposure using potentially non representative laboratory measurements and arbitrary derating schemesThis comfortableinexpensive and simple to use system uses RFID technology for fast and convenient data transfer and provides other innovative features to signi cantly impact hearing loss prevention in the workplace