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 Ear protection.....please help 
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Post Re: Ear protection.....please help
Um....no offense, but as the attendee of hundreds of industrial safety meetings I would be remis if I didn't completely disagree with the "cut the foam plugs in half because the fit nice" advice. They also don't do their job then either. Protecting your hearing is actually pretty simple when you use you PPE (personal protective equipment) properly and as it was designed. Educate yourself as to how the PPE you are relying on does the job and you'll be rewarded with a lack of hearing loss.

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Mon Mar 05, 2012 4:37 pm
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Post Re: Ear protection.....please help
At the 'more expensive than foam but a fraction of the 'state-of-the-art' plugs at $14 or less a pair, are Doc's Pro Plugs http://www.proplugs.com/ . They have a page that tells you about their use in music http://www.proplugs.com/musicandnoise.shtml. I always use the vented variety, you'll see from the graph below that they don't cut so much bass, which sounds more musical to me and works well in lightly amplified bands with moderate bass and drums - I also using them successfully for playing Highland bagpipes indoors. They come in 8 easy measured sizes with a plastic storage box, are comfortable to wear, and last a year or more depending on usage.

Max


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Mon Mar 05, 2012 4:41 pm
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Post Re: Ear protection.....please help
DonScott wrote:
Um....no offense, but as the attendee of hundreds of industrial safety meetings I would be remis if I didn't completely disagree with the "cut the foam plugs in half because the fit nice" advice. They also don't do their job then either. Protecting your hearing is actually pretty simple when you use you PPE (personal protective equipment) properly and as it was designed. Educate yourself as to how the PPE you are relying on does the job and you'll be rewarded with a lack of hearing loss.


No offense taken. However, I do have some experience on the topic. Not to bore you with credentials, but.. I've worked along side Audiologists in various settings i.e, speech/hearing clinics, schools etc...as a licensed Speech Language Pathologist and have taken various classes at the University level in hearing conservation and hearing science. To say that a foam plug , even its altered form offers no protection is false. Does it offer the most protection ...No. Can it offer a certain level of protection as to protect you from ear damage? In most cases. For me they offer comfort and the ability to adjust the amount of occlusion, to a satisfactory level and still be engaged in the music. I've tried many types of plugs, even custom made ones. I prefer the half foam in most any music situation as a listener and performer. The factors that contribute to early onset of hearing loss can be many: age, sound pressure level, frequency, environment, amount of exposure (measured in days and years not just minutes and hours), whether or not you're taking drugs/medication, exposure to fumes or gases paired with the noise, how close you're to the drummer...lol
Protecting your hearing really isn't rocket science, anytime you occlude your ear canal with material that has the ability to absorb and deflect sound, you're protecting your hearing. The type of protection needed is dictated by the environment and the levels you're exposed to. Does cotton offer more protection than foam? No. Is tissue better than cotton? Probably. Many times I've been caught in a loud music situation and resorted to tissue, it's the occlusion you're after.

Your statement: 'Educate yourself as to how the PPE you are relying on does the job and you'll be rewarded with a lack of hearing loss.[/quote]

Of course education is the first step in prevention. But saying you'll be rewarded with a lack of hearing loss is amiss since protection is just one aspect of hearing conservation considering the fact that hearing loss has a genetic etiology in the majority of cases and is very common.
Greg

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Mon Mar 05, 2012 6:18 pm
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Post Re: Ear protection.....please help
Well guys I thank you all. I've made appointments and I'm on my way

Brett


Mon Mar 05, 2012 9:19 pm
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Post Re: Ear protection.....please help
Obviously your depth of experience & knowledge on the varriations on the causes of hearing loss is greater than mine so I'll stand down and concede the point. But I still think advising people to alter PPE from it designed purpose in a general discussion of how to protect your hearing in a "I'm in a loud environment" type of discussion is misguided.

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Mon Mar 05, 2012 9:24 pm
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Post Re: Ear protection.....please help
Whatever you do, do SOMETHING to protect your ears. When I was in my late teens/early twenties, this sort of thing really wasn't on anyone's radar (except maybe for Pete Townshend's), and I was playing drums in a rock band while working in construction and metal fabrication jobs, so my ears got beaten up pretty badly for a few years. Since then I've been living with what many of you do, I'm sure, and that's chronic tinnitus (ringing). I started wearing earplugs on gigs in my mid-twenties, but by then I'd already developed the permanent ring. I've been living with it since approximately the age of 19 (I'm almost 45 now).
The fortunate part for me is that my actual hearing loss isn't anywhere near as bad as I had feared (I've been seeing an audiologist for a year). Unfortunately, there is no cure for chronic tinnitus (remedies that you can buy from TV commercials are bogus). Therapies to alleviate the symptoms DO exist, although American insurance companies don't pay for them. :evil: The therapies basically are designed to train your brain and its Limbic system (which governs the flight/fight response) to stop worrying so much about the strange sound that you're hearing. Over a year, I've trained myself to relax about it, and life is a lot better because of it.
BUT...long story short, the best thing is to prevent it in the first place. Molded earplugs are the best and work extremely well, but if you can't afford them, at least get the "foamies." Immediately.

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Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:33 am
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Post Re: Ear protection.....please help
A drummer friend of mine once gutted out a pair of what I called "shooters eargoggles". Hearing protection for gun enthusiasts(which I am not). Then he inserted a high quality set of headphones and used a small mixer as his personal monitor instead of a floor monitor. He did this even in live situations and though he looked kind of peculiar, he has the best hearing among us after all these years.

Good luck.

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Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:38 am
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Post Re: Ear protection.....please help
I have yet to play with a drummer who isn't too loud so I usually plug in ears into a Zoom H4N, hit record standby and just monitor the room with the volume set to where I want it.


Tue Apr 03, 2012 4:52 am
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