Military ingenuity.
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Ear Protective Devices↗
Biomedical subjects
D Ohlin
Publications and source records attributed to D Ohlin.
Development of a new standard laboratory protocol for estimating the field attenuation of hearing protection devices. Part III. The validity of using subject-fit data.
The mandate of ASA Working Group S12/WG11 has been to develop "laboratory and/or field procedure(s) that yield useful estimates of field performance" of hearing protection devices (HPDs). A real-ear attenuation at threshold procedure was selected, devised, tested via an interlaboratory study, and incorporated into a draft standard that was approved in 1997 [J. D. Royster et at., "Development of a new standard laboratory protocol for estimating the field attenuation of hearing protection devices. Part I. Research of Working Group 11, Accredited Standards Committee S12, Noise," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 99, 1506-1526 (1996); ANSI S12.6-1997, "American National Standard Methods for Measuring Real-Ear Attenuation of Hearing Protectors" (American National Standards Institute, New York, 1997)]. The real-world estimation procedure utilizes a subject-fit methodology with listeners who are audiometrically proficient, but inexperienced in the use of HPDs. A key factor in the decision to utilize the subject-fit method was an evaluation of the representativeness of the laboratory data vis-à-vis attenuation values achieved by workers in practice. Twenty-two field studies were reviewed to develop a data base for comparison purposes. Results indicated that laboratory subject-fit attenuation values were typically equivalent to or greater than the field attenuation values, and yielded a better estimate of those values than did experimenter-fit or experimenter-supervised fit types of results. Recent data which are discussed in the paper, but which were not available at the time of the original analyses, confirm the findings.
Auditory Threshold↗
Let's hear it for our troops. Saving hearing--and money--in the military.
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Audiology↗
Effects of noise exposure, race, and years of service on hearing in U.S. Army soldiers.
Over the last two decades the U.S. Army has instituted a comprehensive hearing conservation program (HCP) to reduce the prevalence of hearing loss in soldiers and civilian employees. As a component of this program, hearing threshold levels (HTLs) are stored in a central computerized Army-wide hearing conservation data registry. The aim of this study was to analyze the hearing threshold data to compare the hearing loss among soldiers representing different (1) race groups, (2) noise exposure groups, and (3) duration of military service. HTLs were age-corrected using data base B values from ISO 1999 (1990). As may be expected, soldiers exposed to high noise levels had significantly poorer hearing than the group of soldiers with limited noise exposure. On the average, results indicated a significant difference in HTLs among the race groups with black soldiers having the most sensitive hearing and white soldiers having the poorest. Also, subjects with greater durations of military service had the least sensitive hearing. Finally, race and years of service factors were found to interact in their effect on HTL. The findings are discussed in terms of implications of race differences, normative data, and effectiveness of the U.S. Army HCP.
Adolescent↗