Noise monitoring technology designed for the ways you work
Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) due to occupational noise affects over two million workers in the UK. And despite comprehensive legislation designed to help protect employees from harmful levels of noise, new cases of NIHL rise by the thousands every year. It’s clear from these statistics that current approaches to noise monitoring in the workplace simply aren’t doing enough to effectively protect workers from NIHL, a permanent and irreversible condition.
There are many reasons why taking control of your noise environment can be a challenge: Hearing loss is notoriously hard to detect and manage due to the fact that it can occur gradually, meaning many workers don’t get a diagnosis or seek care until it’s too late. Additionally, in a dynamic and fast-paced workplace where employees are constantly switching between tasks, tools, and environments, it can be difficult to know which workers are being exposed to which sources of noise, when they’re being exposed, and for how long. And striking the right balance between protection and overprotection isn’t always easy.
When it comes to protection from noise in the workplace, the term overprotection refers to PPE or hearing protection that reduces the noise level at the ear to below 70dBA (decibels-A, a standard unit of sound-level measurement that takes into account the sensitivity of the human ear). Said otherwise: when noise is reduced below this level, it becomes increasingly difficult to hear.
Think of overprotection like choosing the wrong winter coat. When you’re first exposed to cold air, you may reach for your heaviest jacket. But if the jacket is too warm and causes you to sweat or overheat, you’ll end up unzipping it or even taking it off completely. In this scenario, you end up exposed to just as much cold air as you’d be exposed to without any jacket at all.
Overprotection can result in trouble hearing co-workers, warnings, alarms, or other notifications. In a construction or manufacturing environment, among others, this can increase the potential for serious safety issues to occur. That’s why it’s key to deploy noise protection that can help prevent NIHL and enhance ways of working, without compromising safety.
Smart Alert: Industry-defining technology for noise monitoring and management
Smart Alert by Minuendo is purpose-built, lightweight technology for noise monitoring and management in the workplace. It’s industry-defining technology that’s proven to help teams work towards compliance while better protecting workers from potentially unsafe levels of noise. And with its state-of-the-art hear-through technology designed to preserve situational awareness, it all but eliminates the issue of over-protection. Put simply: Smart Alert is designed to facilitate better ways of working, which means that workers are more likely to wear it, more likely to wear it properly, and less likely to remove it.
Powered by Reactec’s Analytics
Through Reactec’s partnership with Minuendo, we’re bringing effective, personalised hearing protection to the UK’s workers. With Minuendo’s Smart Alert technology, teams can monitor workers’ individual exposure to noise with a high degree of accuracy. And because Smart Alert is fully integrated with Reactec’s powerful analytics platform, the data collected is automatically transformed into actionable insights that duty holders or Safety Managers can use to more effectively manage employees’ exposure to harmful noise.
Taken one step further, teams who are already using R-Link for HAVS monitoring or proximity detection can overlay their employees’ exposure data to gain an even deeper insight into their workplace risk environment. By viewing hotspots, trends, patterns, and anomalies in one platform, you can start to uncover even more opportunities for new or improved controls, and begin to drive better health and safety outcomes for workers.
