Hearing Protection

To lower your risk of hearing loss, you need to reduce your exposure to loud sounds. The most effective way to do this is with hearing protection. There are different kinds of hearing protection, and they each work in their own way, but basically, all they do is reduce the amount of sound that gets to your ear. Hearing protection is essential for loud environments. You have earplugs that you can use in a lot of different settings, but they work best in a situation where you've got sound that's coming at you from a really defined direction—kind of like when you're in an airplane and the engines are next to the cabin. 

Hearing protection devices are tested and rated for their ability to reduce noise. The most common way to express their protective capability is with a Noise Reduction Rating (NRR). The NRR is used to rate the level of sound reduction a hearing protection device provides. The higher the number, the more significant the reduction in sound. But just as a person might need a different kind of earmuff for working with power tools versus an earplug for mowing the grass, there are also different kinds of hearing protection that are rated for blocking different types of noise and that afford different kinds of comfort to the user.