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Acoustic Shock May Pose Risk for Call Center Workers

Call Center Furniture Channel Feature Article



CALL CENTER FURNITURE Feature Article

 

November 16, 2005

Acoustic Shock May Pose Risk for Call Center Workers

By Robert Liu, Executive Editor


The ergonomic benefits of telephone headsets often outweigh any potential occupational hazards they pose. Whether tethered and wireless, headsets provide both comfort and call clarity especially for the call center industry, which needs to be particularly sensitive to federal workplace safety regulations.
 
But recently in Europe (where rules governing workplace safety are notably stricter than those in the United States), government officials have begun examining the issue of acoustic shock – random surges in frequency or decibel levels delivered via a headset resulting in piercing sounds that raise the risk of hearing loss.
 
“Taking action early can prevent these problems,” said Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, UK’s junior minister of health and safety, who recently attended the Acoustic Safety Conference at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, England, and characterized acoustic shock as a major new occupational health issue of the 21st century.
 
In the UK, there are an estimated one million call center workers and an estimated 170,000 people suffer from work-related hearing losses, according to the Acoustic Safety Programme, a public-private initiative formed to examine the impact of sound in the workplace. While it’s uncertain how many people are really affected in the U.S. call center industry, the potential risks are greatly magnified if you just consider the impact that headset usage in general has on iPod users.

Noise Thermometer
[Click to enlarge]
Source: Sight & Hearing Association

 
The background droning of a typical office produces about 70 decibels (db) of noise, according to the Better Hearing Institute (BHI). Anything above 85 db is regulated by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). But decibels levels only represent half of the equation to guard against hearing loss. In addition to that, headset users should also examine the amount of continuous hours of usage.
 
“If you listen to an iPod for two hours, it’s equivalent to listening to a chain saw,” said Sergei Kochkin, spokesman at BHI.
 
And, Kochkin claimed, technological improvements to call clarity have actually exacerbated the problem. For example, even though analog audio signals in the past have produced low-level white noise (buzzing, hissing, etc.), that ambient noise actually served to protect headset users acting as a safeguard to protect against loud volumes.
 
“With digital sound, it's so clean…there's no noise. So you don't have that automatic volume control,” Kochkin explained.
 
To be sure, Kochkin doesn’t believe U.S. call center workers are at risk. But his sentiment is exactly what led government officials in the U.K. to examine the issue of acoustic shock. “The most important advice for call centers is to have a traceable reporting system for headset users and that headsets should have built-in protection against high noise levels,” Lord Hunt said in his prepared remarks.
 
For example, in one instance, a union representing BT call center workers in Aberdeen claimed a total of 45 out of 160 operators received around 145 shocks in a single month because their headsets failed to provide the protection they needed.
 
That’s why headset makers like Plantronics builds acoustic protection into its products, company spokesman Dan Race told TMCnet.
 
“We develop headset adapters with digital sound guard protection, so daily personal noise exposure is monitored and automatically controlled to aid compliance. The sound guard protection also identifies and eliminates sudden loud sounds and reduces phone-line noise to avoid user discomfort,” Race said during an email interview.
 
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Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.

 

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