Assessment of comfort of various hearing protection devices (HPD)

To evaluate the comfort of hearing protection devices, two models of ear plugs and five models of ear muffs were tested. The psychophysical method of 'single stimuli' was applied on a group of 30 subjects with or without wearing the devices for a short duration of 15 min under noise condition of 100 dBa in the acoustic chamber as also on a group of 10 weavers with the protection devices worn for longer durations of 1 h, 4 h and 8 h under noise exposure of 102-104 dBA in the weaving shed. Each subject performed 8 trials with each type of device on different days. Application force and tightness of spring were also evaluated. The results yielded a comfort grading for hearing protection devices. The comfort grading, however, depended on several factors in addition to application force and tightness of spring, which has been discussed.