For quick and easy HPE selection
February 1st 2006 With the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 due for implementation in April 2006, noise monitoring is becoming increasingly important in health and safety risk assessments.
However, because different types of noise require different levels of attenuation, it can be time consuming and confusing to ascertain the type of hearing protection equipment (HPE) required from a noise assessment. In response to this, 3M has developed an automatic, on-line HPE Selector Tool that helps the quick and easy selection of the correct type of HPE.
3M occupational health and environmental safety product manager, Adele Copsey explained: "There are two suggested methods for estimating the effective sound level at the ear when wearing hearing protectors: - The high, medium and low (HML) frequency method, which involves the use of both A-weighted and Cweighted sound measurements in the calculation, and
- The more accurate octave band method, which involves the measurement of unweighted sound level at each octave band centre frequency, ranging from 63Hz to 8000Hz.
"The 3M Online HPE Selector Tool software processes the data that is input from the noise assessment report and instantly produces a list of colour-coded 3M product options that would be acceptable for that particular application."
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