There are over 1.64 million workers in the food processing industry who face numerous safety hazards while on the job. One of the most common hazards is the high noise levels from the equipment around the plant. In certain food processing plants, the noise can exceed 95 dB(A), making it difficult for workers to communicate effectively. Often, workers resort to removing their ear protection and shouting over the noise or seeking out quieter areas for simple conversations, which can lead to unsafe practices and downtime.

The mining industry is one of the most crucial sectors of the economy. Despite that, the industry faces unique challenges due to its remote locations, rugged terrain, and hazardous work environments. As a result, communication is essential for the sake of miners' lives, enabling companies to overcome many of these challenges and improve safety, productivity, and profitability.

Would you believe it if you were told that about 61% of mining, oil, and gas workers have been exposed to hazardous noise on the job (NIOSH, 2019)? The oil and gas industry is especially a high-risk working environment, where workers are exposed to various hazards daily, including constant exposure to extreme noise. More often than not, oil and gas workers aren't adequately protected. As such, the need for effective intrinsically safe communication and hearing protection devices in the oil and gas industry that support worker compliance cannot be overemphasized.

Oil and gas companies are always under scrutiny for causing environmental concerns such as oil spills or fires. The reality is that these companies take employee safety very seriously, as it is a very dangerous profession and can be perilous. Although oil and gas companies do not want oil spills and other disasters to occur, the safety of their employees is an equal priority for them. This requires a need for certain resources to assure safety and efficiency.

In the previous two blogs, we gave a brief introduction to the world of intrinsic safety and dug into the different intrinsic safety classifications and explosive protection classification systems. We unpacked all the technicalities behind intrinsically safe headsets and may have left you more overwhelmed with information. Well, today we will give an overview of intrinsic safety that will serve as a summarization of this complex topic and be a starting point for beginners.

In the previous blog, we discussed how to know whether your industrial headsets are intrinsically safe, and we briefly introduced what it means to be intrinsically safe. As we learned, intrinsically safe products, or headsets, in this case, are meant to keep the user safe when in explosive or hazardous environments. In this blog, we will dive deeper into what these hazardous environments look like and how they are systematically classified into different classes, divisions, zones, etc.

When working in the oil & gas or mining industries, there are certain safety requirements that must be met to use the equipment. These work environments are explosive atmospheres where products need to be something called “intrinsically safe” or IS for short. What does this mean, and are products such as two-way radios intrinsically safe because they have IS batteries?

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is causing worldwide concern and economic difficulty for consumers, businesses, and communities across the globe. It has differentially impacted companies based on their industry, geographic focus, end markets served, and product use cases. The paper and packaging industry is no different. Manufacturers are facing unique challenges caused by the crisis and rising demands for products like toilet paper and other hygienic products.

Many people are unaware of the importance of intrinsically safe headsets and equipment; in fact, many individuals do not even know what the term alludes to. A previous two-part series on this blog spent some time unpacking the technicalities behind intrinsically safe headsets. People who are completely new to the concept may have difficulty understanding some of the more complex aspects; therefore, we have written a short piece to familiarize “beginners” with intrinsic safety.

This year’s Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) was an amazing event. According to the show organizers, “attendance at the annual conference reached a 46-year high of 108,300, the highest in show history and up 3.3% from last year.”