Industrial Ear Plugs for Hearing Protection
In adherence to the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, UK employers must provide hearing protection to workers who have a daily or weekly personal noise exposure of 85 dB. Furthermore, those with an average exposure level of between 80 dB (lower action level) and 85 dB (upper action level) must be provided with suitable hearing protection on request. The exposure limit is 87 dB; which means workers must not be exposed to noise levels in excess of 87dB, which also takes into consideration any reduction in exposure from hearing protection. Furthermore, the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Regulation (EU)2016/425 has now replaced the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Directive adopted by the European Council in 1989. Under this new regulation, hearing protection was upgraded from Category II PPE to Category III PPE. This means hearing protection devices are classed as complex PPE, because the equipment needs to protect the user from irreversible harm. To be compliant with the PPE Regulation 2016, all manufacturers of PPE were required to carry out additional testing of their products to ensure they were compliant. All our industrial custom earplugs are fully compliant with the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Regulation (EU)2016/425.
Ultimate Ear Protection offer a range of custom earplugs with varying SNR levels (31, 30, 29 and 23) to suit the noise levels in your environment and provide the correct level of protection. Hearing protection which reduces the noise level at the ear to below 70dB should be avoided, as this may result in overprotection. If workers are overprotected, they may be tempted to remove their hearing protection to communicate with colleagues and/or they may struggle to hearing warning alarms.
As well as offering varying levels of SNR, Ultimate Ear Protection offer custom earplugs with bluetooth connectivity and radio connectivity, allowing for improved communication in the workplace whilst maintaining compliance with the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005. We can also supply custom earplugs which are fully metal detectable and therefore suitable for the Food and Beverage Sector. Our custom earplugs are available in a wide range of colours and can be etched with employee initials or employee numbers for traceability.
Over the years we have supplied the likes of Heinz, Coca-Cola, Jaguar Land Rover and Crown packaging with all of their hearing protection needs. We have also worked closely with contractors on major infrastructure projects such as Thames Tideway and HS2 to meet all their hearing protection requirements. To understand more about the benefits of our custom earplugs and how the process works with the fittings, please click ‘read more’ below.