Hearing Protection Hygiene in Times of Social Distancing

All around the world, the pandemic has brought a new sense of urgency in terms of the efforts directed towards keeping workers safe and sound. To keep workspaces running in times of social distancing and to increase hygiene compliance, companies need to invest in innovative products and materials. This will help enable workers to stay safe and protected. 

Places like construction sites, factories, distribution centers, and warehouses, to name a few, require continuous operation, even more so in the new reality. It’s vital to keep the economy going and critical services running smoothly. At the same time, people in the workplace need to be protected from the inherent operational risks, as well as the microbial risks resulting from sharing the same work area. 

As workspaces adapt to new health and safety challenges, safety regulations and innovative protection materials help reduce health risks for workers.

How hygienic hearing protection can help enable safer workspaces

With extensive experience in the field of personal protection and safety, Honeywell is pushing the boundaries of innovation to help employers shield their workers from hazards in the workspace. As every shared material or product is a possible source of microbial contamination, Honeywell developed the HL400™AM Antimicrobial-Protected Dispenser for Earplugs, to help minimize risks associated with common access to hearing protection.

“We’re witnessing an increased concern for hygiene, as more workplaces implement hearing protection for their workers, and at the same time look at the shared spaces and how these can be made more safe,” said Marc Kirsch, product marketing manager at Honeywell Hearing in Charlotte, N.C.

For this new product, Honeywell has focused on the risks coming from surfaces that are frequently touched by the workers and has created a dispenser with built-in enhanced cleanliness. To lower the microbiological risks, the exposed surfaces of the dispenser are treated with a silver ion antimicrobial additive, which makes them cleaner to the touch than some other materials. 

Regardless of how many times a worker rotates the dispenser’s knob to get a pair of earplugs, the turn knob stays cleaner for use. The earplugs fall on a specially designed catch tray, which is also treated with the antimicrobial additive. As the antimicrobial additive is released slowly into the shared surfaces, earplug dispensing becomes a cleaner process, reducing the cleaning costs in the workspace. And it’s not only a cleaner and easy way for workers to get hearing protection. The HL400™AM Antimicrobial Dispenser for Earplugs is also an efficient tool to minimize waste and optimize costs, featuring a wide array of customizable options:

1.      The canister is made up of durable and recyclable plastic, which amounts to savings in the long run, especially when considering you can choose between two refill options: either replace the empty canister altogether or refill the canister with a zip-top bag. 

2.      Besides the initial prefilled canister, there’s also a wide variety of compatible recyclable earplugs, making this dispenser widely adaptable to a broad range of workers’ protection needs and preferences. 

3.      The canister has a capacity of 400 pairs of single-use earplugs, and it’s compatible with all Howard Leight™ disposable earplug models. You can choose between MAX®, MAX® Small, MAXLite®, Laser Lite®, FirmFit®, Multi Max®, and Xtreme®.

4.      The dispenser is easy to install, and you can choose to install it either on a flat surface or mounted on a wall. Since it has universal hole positions, there’s no need to drill new holes. 

5.      The catch tray ensures that each earplug rests on a clean surface, reducing the possibility of falling on unclean surfaces, which would make it unusable and wasted.

Taking earplugs from the dispenser reduces the microbial risk and can increase workers’ confidence and protection. The enhanced adaptability of the dispenser and re-usable character of its contents make it an economical choice as well. 

“Safety managers understand why their workers need hearing protection, and the sooner they start the process, the better. Also, they are thinking about the quality of the product and its features, like antimicrobial surfaces and environmental footprint,” says Kirsch.

It’s all about choice. Choose to ensure your team has easy access to hearing protection while benefitting from the dispenser’s antimicrobial properties, to keep workspaces running efficiently. 

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