Health & Saftey

HEALTH AND SAFTEY

The control of noise at work regulations 2005 require an employer to what?

To prevent or reduce risks to health and safety from exposure to noise at work. you will have to make sure you take precausions to make sure that they do not suffer NIHL. ( noise, induced hearing loss) You could prevent this by handing ear protection to your employees if they are in a loud enviroment.

Make sure that htey know what to do in a risk to health situation. weather it is to do with hearing or anything else, you will need to mkae sure that your health is not affected by anything in the work place.

Also make sure that the noise levels are conrtolable. if not hten you make sure that you are wearing hearing protectin in an envirometn that you cannot control or prevent the sound exposure time.

What do the regulations not cover?

It does not apply to the members of the public thast do not work in that workplace. if they are exposed to non-work related activity. This would also be reffered to if they are doing road works and you walk by, you are being exposed to the sound but the regulations do not apply.

ALso low level noise is annoying but it is not damaging your hearing.

What are the actionabe values, you must explain what they are?

For how long you are exposed to the noise of your emloyees over a working day or weekly. it is also the maximum noise to each employee that is exposed in a working day.

The values are:

daily or weekly exposure to the level 80dB

Peak sound pressure of 135dB

higher exposure action values :

weekly or daily exposure to 85dB

peak sound pressure of 137dB

here are some extra levels of exposure that you must not exxceed. these are called exposure limit values.

weekly or daily is 87dB

peak pressure of 140dB

HEARING PROTECTION

when should hearing protection be used.

hearing protection should be used when you are exposed to a high level of sound for a certain period of time. This is to make sure that you do not suffer NIHL(noise, induced, hearing,loss.)

PROTECTIONG YOUR HEARING IN LIVE SOUND

One of the biggest things that you will have to make sure that you do regardless of the job role is to follow the regulations to protect your hearing. for example if you are working in a really loud enviroment then you will have to put in the hearing protection provided or recormended. make sure that the hearing protection works to its greatest standard.

you will haev to follow the regulations of the workplace program that will protect your hearing., if you do not wish to then you will have to make agreement and sign a piece of paper to state that you know you are putting yourself at risk at losing your hearing in any way and that they are not reliable anymore. as you have signesd an agreement, however if you do not do that and you fail to meet the regulations expected, then you can be enforced with a fine for not meeting your companies/employers regulations to prevent heasring loss.

if you know the decibels being ammited in your area then you know at what length of time you can be in that enviroment for wihtout hearing protection without your hearing being damaged.

for exampl if you are in an enviroment htat the decibel level is at 85 decibels then you can withstand this for around 8 hours. so all day if on a daily basis. however this will vary with how intense the sound it. for example you can only be emitted to 97dB for half an hour, this is because the damage will start taking place after that period of time. so this is when you would have to wear hearing protection to prevent that.

while you are protecting your hearing in your work place, it is not your job to protect the public . by this is mean that for example if roadworks are being done and the people working have hearing protection on that is because they are having to. That ius their regulations, However this does not apply to the public at all.

the rule to work out the Db level and exposure time is when the dB level iuncreases by 3dB the the SPL is sdoubled. the exposure time is lessned by the Desibel level increasing (SPL= Sound Pressure Level.)

WAYS IN WHICH YOUR HEARING CAN BE EFFECTED

- you can have noise induced hearing loss. this is also known as NIHL.

- you can experience tinitus

- you may get ringing in your ear.

- you could ,potentially in dangerous circumstances, lose youyr hearing in one or both ears, however this is unlickly as long as you take precausions.

Tinitus is where you have constant high pitch buxzz in your ear. you may et used to it but people say they can moslty hear it when irt is really quiet at night and then they have to playu white noise to get to sleepo to drown out the sound of the high pitch rbuzzing they would have constantly.

you can also lose your hearing if you have permenantly damaged a part that makes up your ear.

here is a diagram of the ear and the different parts in which you are able to damage.

THE SECTION BELOW IS FROM A RECENT ASSIGNMENT I HAVE DONE ABOUT THE HUMAN EAR AND HOW THE PARTS WORK JUST IN CASE YOU WERE INTERESTED.

please skip this part if you want to go straight to how your hearing can be damaged below.

"The human ear has different sections to it. It has the outer ear part, the middle ear section and the inner ear section. All of these sections contain different parts of the ear that lets us hear what’s around us.

Pinna

The pinna is also known as an “or auricle” (Partners 1997-2015) is a part of the ear that is on each side of our head. This also helps us for direction from where noise I s coming from. More about that later. It is made of skin and cartilage and soft tissue. This is so that it keeps the shape (different people have different shaped ears) and is also flexible. The pinna serves the purpose of collecting vibrations of sound and guides the vibrations into our ear canal. This helps us to determine where the sound is coming from.

Ear canal

The ear canal (also called the external acoustic meatus) is a passage way in which sound travels into the ear. It is a form of bone and skin that leads to the eardrum. The ear canal is a passage way for the entry of sound waves to enter into the middle ear section. “Which get propelled toward the tympanic membrane, known as the eardrum.” (annonymous 2005-2015)

Ear drum

The ear drum is a thin piece of tissue that marks the point between the outer ear and the inner ear. This is also known as the tympanic membrane. The size is said to be around 0.1mm thick and 8-10mm in diameter. Despite how small that may seem, in fact the ear drum is very flexible and tough and is less prone to being damaged beyond repair. A tough and flexible piece of tissue, called the cartilage, hold the eardrum in place.

The eardrum has three layers. These layers being cutaneous layer (outer), fibrous (middle layer) and the mucous membrane on the inner part of the ear drum. This makes the eardrum tough and less likely to damage. Although the eardrum is tough, you can pop/burst it which in some cases can cause a lot of pain. This can affect your hearing. In my case, in the past I was always getting an ear infection, and that lead to damage inside the ear, which has left me with hearing loss in my left ear. However I think they can fix this my maybe doing an extraction of maybe left behind wax inside the ear clearing the ear of any blockage left behind.

The process in which we hear from the eardrum is by sound waves that travel into the ear, hit the eardrum which causes it to vibrate and then the vibrations get transmitted further into the ear, reaching the bones of the middle ear.

Occicles

The occicles is made up of three mini bones. These are called the malleus, incus and the stapes bones. The malleus bone is the largest out of the three bones. It is also known in its informal term as a hammer. This is because of its shape. When sound reaches the eardrum, the malleus transmits these sound vibrations to the incus, which then travels to the stapes bone, which is connected to the oval window or as shown above known as the round window. It is unlikely that the malleus will be the cause of any hear loss that you may encounter. This is because it is connected directly to the eardrum. The occicles chain (malleus, incus and the stapes) is often effected by abnormal skin growth which is known as the cholesteatoma. This can cause loss of hearing. The malleus and or the incus bone may have to be removed in order to remove the overgrown skin around the bones. After this procedure is taken, you may have to undergo more surgery in order for reconstruction of the ear.

After traveling through the external part of the ear, the vibrations produced by sound waves are transmitted through these bones, which is then passed through to the cochlea. After this the sound is then transmitted through nervous system signals leading to the brain. The incus bone lays in the centre of the three bones, connecting the malleus to the stapes. It is known to be shaped like an anvil, which is where its term, the anvil, is originally from. Just because it looks like an anvil. The bone has many surfaces. One in which is called the head which forms a joint with the malleus bone. Is also has extensions. One short and one long. These are calls crus. At the end of each crus is “the lenticular process, a hooked-shaped part of the incus that forms a joint with the head of the stapes.” (annonymous 2005-2015) The short crus joins to the back wall of the ear cavity. The centre of the incus bone is also known as the body.

Cochlea labyrinth

The cochlea is located in the inner section of the ear. This is after the semi-circular nerves and the little bones that transmit vibrations to the cochlea. The cochlea is filled with fluid membrane that helps with the detection of sound. This also helps you with your balance. The use of the cochlea is to detect low frequencies, such a bass in music. If your cochlea is a smaller size then you are more likely to pick up higher frequencies than those with a larger cochlea. The cochlea is known to be one of the most sensitive structures in the human ear. It is known to be sensitive to the vertebrobasilar ischemic stroke. The vertebrobasilar ischemic stroke is when blood flow to the area located at the back of the brain is cut off. This area supports brainstem, occipital lobes, and cerebellum, which means it supports functions such as the need to breath, swallow, the vision and the coordination.

The cochlea also has a liquid in it called the endolymph which is low in sodium and high in potassium. This liquid helps us with our balance. This is because when we tilt out head, the liquid will move telling us in which direction our head is and if we are not up right.

Hearing loss from this part of the ear may be from low frequencies. This creates hearing loss and result from irreversible deterioration of the cochlea. This cannot be fixed. This happens during aging of humans. This is normal, but unfortunately cannot be fixed.

Semi-circular canals

These bones are lined with very minute hairs that can only be seen by a microscope they are that small. These hairs are also called cilia. The bones are also filled with a liquid substance. This is also known as the endolymph. This works as a motion sensor. This is when the head moves the liquid moves the tiny hairs in the bone and as they move it then sends signals to the brain. This helps the body balanced.

These tiny hairs in the ear pass on vibrations to the brain, and if one of these hairs snaps, then the frequency that that hair is assigned to, is then the only frequency that is permanently on. This can be caused from loud noises or being around noise that can damage your ears after a certain amount of time. This is also known as noise induced hearing loss. You can also get this by listening to music at a very high volume. Once you damage one or more of the hairs it can no longer be fixed. People may also experience a ringing in the ear if they have been to a very loud concert, or you can also experience tinnitus, which is something that causes you to constantly hear a ringing in the ear. Some people with tinnitus will have to have different noise in the background at night in order to drown out the tinnitus, so that they can sleep at night.

Tensor tympani

The tensor tympani muscle is one of the two muscles in the middle ear. This muscle tenses to protect the ear drum form suffering any damage that it may be in danger of."

that is how the human ear works with each part. HOW WE HEAR SOUND

Below is another section from that same assignment on hw the hearing can me damaged/lost.

here is an explanation about NIHL

"Hearing damage

Noise induced hearing loss is one was that we lose our hearing. What is noise induced hearing loss? Well we experience sound in our everyday life, such as the sound of people talking, cars if you are traveling, birds, television, and music when we want to isolate ourselves from the world. Normally these things are at safe levels that don’t damage our hearing at all. But sounds can be more harmful to our hearing than you think. This can be when they are too loud for a long period of time. Or really really loud really quickly. The range that a human can hear at is from 20htz to 20khtz (20000htz). However as we age we tend to stop hearing really low frequencies and really high frequencies. This is just the natural process of aging. We are more likely to lose more of our hearing bb isolating ourselves to loud sounds for a short or long periods of time. These sounds can damage sensitive structures of the human ear, such as the ear drum and the cochlea. This is called noise induced hearing loss or NIHL for short.

NIHL can happen over a long period of time or can happen immediately. It can also be temporary or permanent. A permanent form of NIHL is known as tinnitus. This is where the person is always hearing a high pitch frequency and cannot get rid of it. Some may even need a background nose to drown out the noise at night just so they are able to sleep."

HOW TO LIFT EQUIPMENT CORRECTLY

Adding to health and saftey. While you are setting up anything before a gig, such as a PA system, you hace to make sure that the cables are not a trip hazard and that everything you are using is safe. You also have to make sure that you know how to carry equipment corrctly. For example you need to make sure that you do not lift with your back. heavy objects must be lifted in the correct manor. for example you bend your knees and squat. you then make sure that the objects you are trying to carry are not too heavy for you to pick up without straining yourself. then you tilt it towards you with the heavier side on your chest or jsut towards you so that it cannot be tempted to fall and break. also you will make sure your path is clear otherwise you may need to stop and if carryingoutsice in the rain you do not want to damage your equipment.

" I also have more i nformation about this on my PRACTICLE WORK blog that i did. i also have a link tot he video demonstration of how to correctly lifet equipment."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.hse.gov.uk/noise/employers.htm