In-Ear Dosimetry Recognised by BSIF for Product Innovation

The British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) has awarded its 2011 Product Innovation Award to the Howard Leight® (France) QuietDose™ in-ear dosimeter. The award, which is designed to recognise new and innovative products that contribute to improvements in occupational safety and health, was presented at the RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards Gala Dinner held during Safety and Health Expo 2011.

QuietDose is the first and only personal dosimeter that measures and records a worker’s actual in-ear exposure to noise over an entire work shift, and is a major advance towards stopping the progression of occupational hearing loss and ensuring employer compliance with hearing safety regulations.

“We are committed to providing a more holistic approach to occupational hearing loss prevention,” said Ian Shepherd, Hearing National Product Sales Manager for Honeywell Safety Products in the UK. “We are honoured to be recognised by the British Safety Industry for QuietDose and the pursuit of a more deterministic and preventive approach towards hearing conservation in the workplace.”

QuietDose’s in-ear dosimeter measures the actual noise levels reaching a worker’s eardrums in real-time, over an entire work shift and whilst they are both protected and unprotected. When it is worn as hearing protection, it measures sound pressure levels inside the protector. During periods when it is not worn, such as rest periods, QuietDose continues to measure the ambient noise levels in order to record the worker’s actual noise exposure throughout the workday.

QuietDose provides safety managers with an unprecedented level of personalised data to create the most customised and effective hearing conservation programs for each worker. This results in fewer documented cases of occupational hearing loss for employees, and fewer claims and lower compensation costs for employers. Supervisors can also use the personalised data to improve productivity by better managing worker deployment in areas of extreme noise. QuietDose also enables workers to personally monitor and control their own noise exposure in real-time. Flashing alerts indicate when noise exposure reaches or exceeds prescribed limits.