In today's fast-paced and dynamic work environments, situational awareness has emerged as a critical skill for workers across a range of industries. The ability to perceive and comprehend the complexities of a situation, anticipate potential risks, and make informed decisions has become necessary to ensure worker safety. However, despite the growing recognition of situational awareness, a surprising lack of standards exists regarding training and guidelines for workers to develop and maintain this vital skill.

In a world filled with constant noise, protecting our hearing has become more crucial than ever. Whether it's in noisy workplaces, bustling cities, or concerts, our ears are continuously bombarded with sound. However, there is a way to protect your hearing while still staying connected to your surroundings. Sensear's smartMuff is an innovative headset that not only protects your ears but also enhances your ability to communicate and interact with others. With its groundbreaking SENS^® Technology and unmatched comfort, the smartMuff is revolutionizing the way we experience sound in everyday high noise. 

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.

Safety hazards in the oil and gas industry are inevitable. It is a high-risk sector that poses various risks to workers due to the environment and labor work, with a recorded 20 employee deaths in the industry in 2021 (JPT, 2022). Beyond that, an estimated 14% of noise-exposed workers in the oil and gas sector have hearing loss (NIOSH, 2019). Inadequate hearing protection in the oil and gas industry leads to accidents and injuries. Workers who cannot hear warning signals or instructions are at a higher risk of being involved in accidents that can be fatal or have a long-lasting impact. Therefore, to mitigate safety hazards, it is necessary to identify threats and take the right steps to prevent them before it is too late. 

A noisy environment is one of the main stress triggers for employees and leads to reduced productivity. In high-noise environments, sounds coming from machinery or equipment produce high or extreme noise levels that can adversely affect communication between workers. Common practices like shouting at others or asking them to talk loudly are barely effective. If employees cannot alert each other, accidents can occur and cause injuries. As OSHA requires workers to wear hearing protection in environments where noise reaches or exceeds 85 dB(A), workers run into issues by removing their hearing protection when they need to communicate with one another. Most employees have a critical requirement to communicate with colleagues and traditional hearing protection headsets restrict the workers' ability to communicate. Therefore, workers need a solution that provides the correct level of hearing protection, while allowing employees to communicate and have situational awareness. 

Loud-noise exposure can have a wide range of detrimental effects in your workplace. These loud noises can have long-term consequences such as speech interference, sleep disturbance, fatigue, and even different levels of hearing loss.

As mentioned in our overview blog of noise-induced hearing loss, sometimes we experience very loud noise which, even for a brief amount of exposure, can temporarily or permanently damage our inner ears causing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). There are often misconceptions about NIHL, but we will debunk these myths. 

Employee safety must always be the top priority in the workplace. When the risk of occupational hazards increases in certain professions, preventative measures to protect employees become increasingly crucial. The risks increase significantly when employees are exposed to consistent loud noise as part of their daily roles. A deep understanding of the causes, effects and prevention measures available can help to protect employees at risk.

When working in a hazardous plant or work environment, you often hear that you need to be aware of your surroundings or to be risk-averse. But what does this mean and how does one accomplish situational awareness? According to OSHA, situational awareness is “knowing what is going on all around you by having the ability to identify, process, comprehend, and respond to critical elements of information regarding the environment in which you are located.” Let’s break that down.

Have you ever wondered what the loudest work environment is? According to a 2018 study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting industries are among the most hazardous for high noise and hearing loss, with the forestry and logging industry as the most pervasive. Workers exposed to high noise in the forestry and logging industry have “a higher percentage of hearing loss (21%) than all other noise-exposed industries combined (19%)” (CDC, 2018).