Communication using a telephone while wearing a respirator.

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Human Factors Engineering
• Communication Science

Background:

• Respirator use is known to degrade face-to-face communication.
• Limited data exists on respirator effects on telephone-based communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of wearing U.S. Army M40 respirators on telephone communication effectiveness.
• To assess how different respirator speech diaphragm and hood materials affect communication performance.

Main Methods:

• Eleven subject pairs participated, pronouncing and identifying words from Modified Rhyme Test lists via telephone.
• Participants wore M40 full-facepiece air-purifying respirators with hoods.
• Three speech diaphragm configurations and two hood materials were tested.

Main Results:

• Communication accuracy decreased by approximately 10% when wearing respirators and hoods compared to no equipment.
• Word identification speed was reduced by 33% to 67%, depending on the specific equipment used.

Conclusions:

• Wearing respirators significantly degrades telephone communication clarity and speed.
• The findings underscore the need for improved respirator designs to mitigate communication impairment in critical environments.