On-Duty Hearing Protection?

HIGH-1

Etymotic’s “Wear All Day” Options.

Gunshots on the range, SWAT training, SWAT missions, flashbangs, EOD render safe ops, a drunk in the back seat belting out his favorite Black Sabbath Ozzy tune and a blaring 125dB siren in your left ear — it’s a wonder any of us can hear at all. Permanent hearing loss is a real concern for cops, risk managers and worker’s comp insurers. There are ways of mitigating this risk to LEOs, but the bean counters find spending money abhorrent and totally contrary to their mission. If it’s impossible to convince your agency to spend a little money to save a great deal in the long run, you may need to take the toro by the horns, break open your wallet and spend a few bucks on your own health.

The units are of modest size and according to Dave, comfortable to wear all day.

Using “Air-Zinc” batteries, the units are left “on” all the time, and have a 2-week life.

Back In The Day

I find myself using that term more often now as I get deeper into retirement, however, to quote the often-misquoted George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” So, I take it as my solemn mission in retirement to pester the hell out of you and be that little gnat flying around the faces and up the noses of your administrators regarding things needing fixing. Hearing protection is one of them.

During my academy time, we were instructed to pick up some of the spent .38 Special cartridges and shove them in our ears. I’m sure the instructors were just looking out for us. But, lets see: lead, lead styphnate, antimony sulfide, barium nitrate, lithium chloride, potassium chloride and other methyl-ethyl bad stuff shoved in an opening in our heads? Sounds good to me, sir. After that was pointed out to the instructor community came cotton balls, and they didn’t even stop the breeze.

Let’s Fix This

We really can’t go driving around in a patrol car all day with earmuffs on our heads. Some of the earplugs, while efficient, block out sound altogether. We need to be able to hear; it’s a sense critical to doing the job. We need hearing protection that stops the harmful noise but also allows non-harmful sound through. Etymotic Research, a company specializing in hearing-related products, has the answer — their EB15 High Fidelity Electronic BlastPLG Earplugs.

The EB15LE BlastPLG Earplugs are designed specifically for law enforcement and the military. They allow natural hearing and protect your ears from impulse as well as continuous loud noise. They have a unique feature called adaptive attenuation. It automatically and gradually reduces continuous loud noise, like vehicle noise, machinery and nearby shooters up to 15dB.

Advantages to this type of hearing protection are enhanced 360-degree situational awareness, sound detection and localization. Another advantage is they allow the user to clearly hear speech in loud-noise environments.

There’s no off/on switch. The units use Air-Zinc batteries, which last about 2 weeks in continuous use. Even if it had an off position, the batteries would only last 2 weeks. It’s just the nature of the mercury-free #312 Air-Zinc battery. They’re cheap and can be found at any drug store.

The single switch on the EB15 places the unit in either the adaptive attenuation mode or the high position, where soft sounds are amplified by 15dB improving distance detection up to five times.

I used them all day during a recent qualification session. I could easily hear officers call out if they had trouble and they were very comfortable — no sweaty ears from earmuffs, and I could wear any type of hat I wanted. Best of all, my ears weren’t ringing at the end of the day from the gunshots.
Save your hearing. It’s as simple as that. “I SAID … SAVE YOUR HEARING, IT’S AS SIMPLE AS THAT!” Now’d you hear me?