CSA STANDARD ON HEARING PROTECTION DEVICES Z A. Behar – Ryerson University D. Shanahan - CSA NHCA

Presentation Contents 1.NATURE OF THE STANDARD 2.HISTORY OF THE STANDARD 3.PREVIOUS STANDARD (1994) 4.WHY A NEW STANDARD? 5.PRESENT DRAFT 6.WHAT’S NEXT? 2

3 A STANDRD THAT IS NOT “MEASURING” BUT BASICALLY AN “APPLICATION” ONE: full title: Z HERARING PROTECTION DEVICES – PERFORMANCE, SELECTION, CARE AND USE

Editions published in: and * CSA Standards must be revised every 5 years. HISTORY OF THE Z94.2 STANDARD 4

WHY A NEW STANDARD? A. PROBLEMS WITH THE PREVIOUS VERSION: i) Users familiar with the NRR, not comfortable with the Class system ii)No NRR derating guidance iii)No discussion on new developments including FAES iv)Structure not user’s friendly 5

B. NEW DEVELOPMENTS: i) New ANSI attenuation testing standard (ANSI S ) ii) New ISO Standard with 3 different rating scales (ISO ) -Octave bands -HML -SNR 6

CSA-Z Dec Edition An All New and Greatly Improved CSA Standard! 7

Test procedures and classification Only one test to be performed: - Force Measurement (for muffs and semi- inserts) Sound Attenuation test performed as per either a) ANSI S3.19 – 1974, or b) ANSI/ASA S (Method B) 8

9 ANSI S3.19 “ Real Ear” Measurement of Attenuation Over a Range of Frequencies (125 – 8,000 Hz). Measurement of Threshold of Hearing (with and without protectors) OPERATOR HELP DON PROTECTORS!

10 ANSI S12.6 (Method B) “ Real Ear” Measurement of Attenuation Over a Range of Frequencies (125 – 8,000 Hz). Measurement of Threshold of Hearing (with and without protectors) SUBJECT DONS PROTECTORS!

11 USING METHOD IN ANSI 3.19 From the measurement results - Classes A, B and C and - NRR are calculated following procedures in the previous Standard.

12 USING ANSI S12.6, METHOD B From the measurement results a Single Number Rating SNR(SF16) is calculated.

Selection, of Hearing Protection Devices Important Sections: -Types of HPDs -Sound attenuation i) Reasons for not achieving lab results ii) Derating approaches 13

14 iii) Attenuation at frequency extremes iv) Effectiveness (duration of wearing HPDs) v) Double protection vi) Overprotection vii)Specialized HPDs viii) FAES

15 ix)Certification friendly (example in Annex) x)Expanded Annexes xi)Requirement for use of octave band calculation for Lex >105 dBA

16 Selection of Protectors: a.CLASS A, B or C b. Single Number Rating c.SNR(SF 84 ) d.Octave-Band Computation

17 DERATING OF NRR (Percentage of NRR achieved) Plugs: 50% Muffs: 70% Dual protection: 65%

18 Correction when measuring ambient noise level in dBA: - 3 dB. Aplicable to NRR and to SNR(SF 84 )

Resulting sound level Protection outcome 85 +Insufficient Acceptable Good Overprotection Table 4: Protection Outcome 19

Other Sections deal with: -Fit, Care and Use -Implementation (of the HPDs program) 20

21 Recommendation: Hearing protection programs to be part of a management system (in line with the CSA Z1007 Standard

Thank you! Any questions? 22