Will INTEGRAfit measure a PAR for a worker with hearing loss?
One of the reasons that 500 Hz was chosen as the testing frequency is because the incidence of hearing loss at 500 Hz is low. Our analysis indicates that approximately 8% of occupationally-noise exposed workers have 500 Hz thresholds greater than 20 decibels (20 dB HL). INTEGRAfits maximum output at 500 Hz is 90 dB HL. Assuming that a worker obtains 30 decibels of hearing protection from earplugs, the maximum hearing loss that INTEGRAfit will accommodate is 60 dB HL. If a worker obtains 40 decibels of hearing protectiona very high amount of hearing protection even with double protectionthe maximum hearing loss INTEGRAfit will accommodate is 50 dB HL. Our analysis shows that less than 1% of occupationally-noise exposed workers have hearing loss greater than 40 dB HL and less than 0.5% have hearing loss exceeding 60 dB HL. The bottom line is that INTEGRAfit will accurately measure a PAR on 99% of the noise exposed workforce. Suppose the hearing-impaired worker gets too much attenuation t
