Volume 8 Issue 3 (pdf) - Andrew John Publishing Inc
Volume 8 Issue 3 (pdf) - Andrew John Publishing Inc
Volume 8 Issue 3 (pdf) - Andrew John Publishing Inc
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| researCh and deveLopMent foCus<br />
Headsets – Are They Damaging your Hearing<br />
By Alberto Behar, PEng and Gabe Nespoli, BSc, MA Ryerson University<br />
albehar31@gmail.com<br />
About the Authors<br />
Alberto Behar is a professional engineer and certified industrial hygienist. He holds a diploma in<br />
acoustics from the Imperial College and has been the recipient of several fellowships, including<br />
one from the Fulbright Commission (USA) and the Hugh Nelson Award of Excellence in Industrial<br />
Hygiene (OHAO, Canada).<br />
He is lecturer at Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and a board certified<br />
member of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering. Alberto is a chairman and member of CSA<br />
and ANSI committees and working groups and is also the Canadian representative at two ISO<br />
Working Groups.<br />
Gabe Nespoli is research operations coordinator at Ryerson University and lab manager (SMART<br />
Lab) at Ryerson University<br />
Headsets are headphones with an<br />
attached microphone that allows<br />
the user to communicate.<br />
We see them all the time in fast food takeouts<br />
(sometimes with one cup only) so<br />
that the worker can take your order while<br />
walking around. On a noisy shop floor<br />
they are used to attenuate background<br />
noise while enabling communication<br />
with fellow workers or supervisors. Some<br />
truck drivers wear headsets to listen to<br />
the radio or communicate with the<br />
dispatch centre, freeing their hands for<br />
driving. They are also used in call centres,<br />
airport control towers, and construction<br />
sites. We even use them at home when<br />
we want to listen to TV without<br />
disturbing others, or when trying to<br />
block out environmental noise while<br />
working or playing on the computer.<br />
Different headsets provide different<br />
amounts of attenuation for different<br />
applications. High attenuation headsets<br />
may also act as hearing protectors.<br />
When wearing a headset, there are two<br />
sources of sound involved: environmental<br />
(background) noise and an<br />
audio signal (that can be speech or<br />
music).<br />
The headset’s cups attenuate environmental<br />
noise, while the signal is routed<br />
directly into the ears of the listener<br />
through the loudspeakers situated in the<br />
Figure 1. Example of headset.<br />
28 CANADIAN HEARING REPORT | REVUE CANADIENNE D’AUDITION