Hearing protection fit-testing

[15] Countries that have published standards recommending the use of fit testing as part of hearing conservation interventions include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Italy, Russia, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

[16] Effective March 31, 2023, the Alberta Government added a requirement that employers fit test each employee who wears HPDs.

[18][19] On January 2025 NIOSH published a Science Policy Update recommending employers use individual, quantitative fit testing to evaluate the attenuation received by workers from their hearing protection devices.

The different methods[22] used to measure the attenuation provided by HPDs are as follows: REAT is the most commonly used type of fit-testing technology used in commercial systems.

REAT systems are modeled on the "gold-standard" approach to measuring hearing protector attenuation as defined in acoustic standards such as ANSI/ASA S12.6 and the ISO 4869-1.

This method measures attenuation by placing a small microphone inside the ear canal while hearing protection is worn.

[8][27] The outcome measure generated by hearing protector fit-test systems varies from a simple pass/fail to a quantitative personal attenuation rating (PAR).

[8][27] The method for estimating protected noise exposure based on the measured PAR may vary slightly across fit-test systems, so it is important to understand to use the PAR generated by a given fit test system[24] Evidence shows that including fit-testing as a part of employee training for correct hearing protection device use increases the user's ability to properly fit the device, and that this ability is often retained on follow-up.

The studies evaluated the impacts of either simple or extensive instructions provided to workers for inserting and fitting earplugs (foam or pre-molded).