Promoting the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Illustration of critical aspects based on an intervention in the real world

Effectively the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is essential and imperative for the prevention of hearing problems. This will only be effective if the equipment is used consistently by workers (Franks, Stephen-son & Merry, 1996). Some studies have shown that when hearing protection is not used 100% of the time, its effectiveness decreases dramatically. For example, if the PPE is used only 90% of the exposure time, the efficiency decreases to less than one third (Arezes & Miguel, 2002b).