Insertion loss of personal protective clothing

Abstract

The use of personal protective clothing that covers the head is a common practice in many industries. Such personal protective clothing will impact the sound pressure level and the frequency content of sounds to which the wearer will be exposed. The use of such clothing, then, may impact speech and alarm audibility. A measure of the impact of such clothing is its insertion loss. Insertion loss measurements were performed on four types of personal protective clothing which utilize cloth and plastic hood configurations to protect the head. All clothing configurations tested at least partially cover the ears. The measurements revealed that insertion loss of the items tested was notable at frequencies above 1000 Hz only and was a function of material stiffness and acoustic flanking paths to the ear. Further, an estimate of the clothing's noise reduction rating reveals poor performance in that regard, even though the insertion loss of the test articles was significant at frequencies at and above 1000 Hz.