Hearing protection by new standards from CEN

It has long been known that noise has many negative effects on human health. Apart from hearing impairment and cardiovascular problems, it can also affect mental health. And even harmless activities (work, hobbies, and concerts) could be dangerous. Therefore, the demand for high quality materials is growing rapidly, and the creators of hearing protection are faced with technology, supported by updated requirements more and more frequently. This situation creates new standards.

The risks and consequences of unwanted noise as well as market developments have led to an increase in health and safety requirements to the level of Category III in the PPE Regulation (EU) 2016/425. This regulation was adopted to establish health and safety requirements for personal protective equipment (PPE) in all EU states and for eliminating the barriers to trade in PPE between them.

CEN became very interested in this topic. CEN / TC 159 Hearing Protection has prepared a series of new standards eligible the above requirements. The regulations ensure a high level of security for protective equipment. The standards were divided into two series:

• EN 13819 “Hearing protection – Testing” (3 parts);
• EN-352 “Hearing protection equipment. Safety requirements” (10 parts).
  

New standards provide more secure electronics. They ensure a high level of hearing protection and include conformity assessments used by manufacturers to demonstrate that products comply with EU legislation.