Citation

Arz JP, Gettliffe JP, Delattre P. Int. J. Occup. Safety Ergonomics 2018; 24(1): 149-159.

Affiliation

Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer français (SNCF) - Medical service 3, place des archives - 69002 LYON.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Centralny Instytut Ochrony Pracy - Państwowy Instytut Badawczy, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10803548.2017.1375733

PMID

28869404

Abstract

The effect of wearing hearing protectors on the audibility of warning signals has been evaluated for three specific railway-related jobs: track workers, train drivers and platform agents. Masked thresholds were measured in the laboratory, on railway agents having normal hearing, by using warning signals and background noises typical of each job. Out of the 36 situations tested in total, statistical analyses showed that wearing the earplugs improves the perception in 11 situations; deteriorates the perception in 10 situations and has no significant effect in 15 situations (as compared to no hearing protector). The deteriorations essentially concern the signals which have no (or not enough) energy in the low-frequency range (f<1500 Hz) when they have to be heard in background noises which dominate in the low frequency range. To prevent the deteriorations, these signals could be modified by adding some energy in the low-frequency range (f<1500 Hz).

Language: en

Keywords

Hearing protector devices; audibility; masked threshold; warning signals