Aging, some drugs, head injuries and excessive noise can all cause lasting damage to hearing. The most common type of permanent hearing loss results from excessive noise.

What causes noise-induced hearing loss?

• Loudness of a sound (decibels)
• Pitch of a sound
• Length of exposure

The loudness of a sound and the length of exposure are directly related. The louder the sound, the shorter the time it takes to damage hearing. Sound levels of less than 75 decibels are unlikely to cause permanent hearing loss. Sound levels above 85 decibels can be dangerous after prolonged exposure. Repeated, prolonged exposure (more than eight hours) to noise above 90 decibels (motorcycles and lawn mowers) can cause gradual hearing loss. Rock concerts generate sound levels between 110 and 140 decibels and can cause damage in less than 15 minutes. Some of the hearing damage is reversible, but repeated and prolonged exposures to excessive noise can result in permanent damage.

What are the danger signs of noise-induced hearing loss?

• Ringing or buzzing in the ears
• Difficulty understanding speech
• Slight muffling of sounds
• Difficulty understanding speech in noisy places or places with poor acoustics.
• Shouting to communicate

Are headphone users at risk of hearing loss?

Normal conversation measures around 60 decibels. If you listen to headphones and keep the volume at a normal conversational level, you are not at risk of hearing loss. Your headphone volume should be kept low enough so no one else can hear it.

Headphone users are susceptible to a decreasing sensitivity to sound levels over time, as the ears adapt to loud sounds. The listener perceives a gradual drop in loudness even though the volume is the same. It is important to avoid listening fatigue when working by taking hearing breaks and resting the ears. Otherwise, there is a danger of increasing the volume to dangerous levels.

How can I make sure my headphone is at a safe level?

• Keep your headset volume as low as possible without straining to hear.
• Co-workers should not be able to hear sounds from your headset.
• With open-air headphones, you should be able to hear normal conversation through the headphones.
• Normal conversation may not be audible with closed-ear headphones. Lift one earpiece off an ear and compare the level in the other earpiece with that of normal conversation to set a safe volume level.

What can I do to prevent hearing loss if I use headphones for my work?

• Set your headphone volume at a conversational level.
• Avoid hearing fatigue. Take a 1-2 minute listening break after working for 30 minutes. A 5-10 minute break is recommended every few hours. After four hours, take a sixty-minute lunch or dinner break, preferably in a quiet environment.
• Reduce ambient noise in your environment. Use curtains and carpeting to reduce indoor noise. Turn off background music and isolate noisy equipment (i.e. printers) by increasing the distance or moving to another room.
• Have your hearing tested during your annual physical

Source: http://ergonomics.ucla.edu/Howto_Headset.html

B-12 Deficiency Can Cause Numbness & Tingling in Hands (Among Other Symptoms)  Source http://www.ergoblog.com/

I’m always interested in causes behind symptoms that often get lumped in under “repetitive stress injuries” (RSI).  We blame typing and poor ergonomics for a lot of our woes, but when I was having a lot of trouble with hand pain, it was a matter of changing my diet, not my desk configuration.  Of course, it took a couple doctors before someone thought to have me tested for food allergies (first I had to suffer through the here-take-some-drugs-and-wear-wrist-splints phase followed by the let’s-sign-you-up-for-expensive-physical-therapy-you-can’t-afford phase).  That’s when I found out I was intolerant to gluten and dairy and that eliminating them helped tremendously.

If you’re in the same boat where you’ve tried a lot of the common fixes for hand/wrist/joint pain etc. and haven’t found them all that helpful, it’s definitely worth trying to get to the bottom–figuring out what’s causing the symptoms rather than just trying to treat them.

I was recently surfing around the web and found a list of the common symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency.  The fact that numbness/tingling in the hands was on the list, of course, caught my eye.  Here’s a list of some of the typical symptoms:

1. Itchy or tingling tongue. The tongue suddenly itches from time to time without warning. This occurs on the edge of the tongue, along one side or the other or at the tip. Some individuals experience stinging, pain, or tingling instead of itching.

2. White spots in the skin, resulting from melanin becoming absent in the area. These often occur on the outside of the forearm, but may occur in other places. The longer these spots are there, the whiter they get. As time goes by, the spots become very dry and flaky to the extent that small raw spots of skin may be exposed.

3. Sharp stabbing, tingling pain in the palm of one or both hands. This occurs suddenly and for no apparent reason in a spot directly below the ring finger, approximately where the first palm crease is. If B12 deficiency is not treated, a tingling pain may begin to occur along the outside edge of the hand, starting from the wrist. This pain occurs when the wrist is extended.

4. Sores at the corners of the mouth, sometimes extending along the edge of the lip. These are raw spots, not blisters, and they tend to come and go.

5. Nerve shock in the side of the body. It can be felt coming on a few seconds before it hits, and then it hits almost like a mild but deep electric shock and quickly subsides. It can occur at the side of either hip or on either side of the upper body, along the ribs. It can occur consecutively in at least two or three locations, one right after the other.

6. Shortness of breath, but without chest pain. This can occur when walking just a few yards.

7. Eye twitch, usually in one eye or the other. It can occur on the eyelid or just below the eye.

8. Facial pain, usually on only one side of the face at a time. This pain varies so much that it would be difficult to describe all the possibilities. This can present as a dull pain in the cheek bone right underneath an eye, or a sharp shooting pain across the forehead, sometimes coming downward from the scalp to the edge of the nose by the eye.

9. Tingling along the back of one or both thighs, starting at the hips and shooting downward.

10. Memory loss and/or disorientation.

11. Migraine headaches. These may be preceded by a temporary blind spot in the center of the field of vision, usually lasting about ten minutes, and sometimes followed by facial pain under the eyes. After the blind spot vanishes, there may be zigzag streaks through the vision that may last up to hours. Even in the same person, there may be extreme variations in the headaches themselves. They may be quite severe with nausea or they may be virtually nonexistent.

This list is from the wikipedia article on Vitamin B12 Deficiency.  I assume not everyone is going to have all of the symptoms (I know I had a couple of the less common gluten intolerance symptoms and few of the common ones when I was tested for that, but eliminating it from my diet was key in getting over my RSI).  Another article on B12 anemia (from WebMD) mentions simply “Numbness or tingling in your fingers and toes.”

If any of this stuff sounds familiar, it’s definitely worth getting a blood test. 

There are several causes of B12 deficiency including simply not eating enough meat (vegans and vegetarians may have the problem and can take a vitamin to overcome it) or not being able to digest it sufficiently (such as may happen with celiac disease or bacteria overgrowth in the intestines). 

Taking vitamin pills may not be that effective if you’re having trouble digesting B12.  Alternatives are B12 shots (which you can give yourself after a doctor shows you how and writes a prescription) or B12 patches which you can buy over the counter.

Fashionable or not, more people are wearing these wireless headsets for making phone calls in the car and in everyday life. This week, I reviewed two that look stylish enough that you won’t mind being seen wearing them: Plantronics Inc.’s Discovery 975 (Plantronics.com) and Aliph’s Jawbone Prime (Jawbone.com).

These Bluetooth headsets cost $130 each and use the best technology from their respective companies, including impressive-sounding features like AudioIQ 2, WindSmart, NoiseAssassin 2.0 and an Acoustic Voice Activity Detector. Each headset aims to deliver clearer incoming and outgoing sound.

After using these two headsets in an office, while walking through noisy city streets and as I drove a car with its windows open, I found that I liked the Plantronics Discovery 975 more than the Jawbone Prime. It felt more comfortable and stable in my ear, and its longer boom fit my face better than the Jawbone Prime’s stubby build. I was able to hear people more clearly while using the Plantronics (PLT) earpiece. But on the other end of the call, friends said the Jawbone Prime did a better job of muffling noise.

The Plantronics Discovery 975 also has something that the Jawbone Prime doesn’t have: a carrying case that holds the earpiece and charges it on the go. This charging case can triple the device’s talk time from five to 15 hours, and it holds its charge for a week on standby. A display on the case shows how much battery remains both in the charged case and on the earpiece itself when it’s held in the case.

Aliph’s Jawbone Prime

I liked using this case because it meant I didn’t have to think so often about charging my headset. It also gave me a place to keep the small Discovery 975 earpiece, making it harder to lose in the bottom of a purse or large work bag. Though people who don’t carry briefcases or purses wouldn’t likely use this case, it’s convenient to have the option.

None of the Jawbone models come with carrying cases, though stores like Best Buy sell some cases that will hold Jawbone headsets. In the future, Aliph says it plans to make its own cases that will hold and charge its Jawbone headsets.

Aliph’s Jawbone has always been one of the most stylish Bluetooth headsets, thanks to its compact form factor and disguised buttons. The Jawbone Prime follows suit with a design that makes it appear slightly smaller than its predecessor. It comes in seven colors, including four especially bright “EarCandy” hues: Drop Me a Lime, Lilac You Mean It, ‘Yello! and Frankly Scarlet. The Prime maintains the original Jawbone’s namesake design feature: If worn properly, it touches your face near your jawbone and removes background noise. But a new feature also uses sound to detect the speaker’s voice and eliminate extraneous noise, so the headset doesn’t always need to touch the face.

The design of the Plantronics Discovery 975 ups the company’s chic factor by replacing its former model’s triangular boom with an elegant boom made of a single thin metallic sliver. It reminded me more of jewelry than a tech gadget. Like the Jawbone models, it looks less geeky because buttons are disguised, and it doesn’t emit a blinking blue light while in use—an improvement for Plantronics. The Discovery 975 comes only in graphite, though AT&T (T) stores will carry it in silver.

I started testing the Plantronics Discovery 975 and Jawbone Prime from my quiet office, without any distracting background noise. There, the Plantronics headset sounded better than the Jawbone, making my voice sound crisper, according to the person on the other end of line; likewise, his voice sounded louder to me. He also said he couldn’t tell I was using a headset while I was on the Discovery 975, but definitely knew I was on a headset while I used the Jawbone Prime.

The Plantronics Discovery 975

Next, I walked along the streets of busy downtown Washington, D.C., chatting on each headset while standing steps away from the squeaky sound of car brakes and taxis honking. Here, the Jawbone did a better job of fading that street noise into the background, compared to the Plantronics headset.

I also took turns using the Jawbone Prime and Plantronics Discovery 975 while driving through the city with all four car windows open to test the antiwind capabilities of each. Here again, the Jawbone Prime sounded better to the person on the other end, though the Plantronics didn’t sound bad. My friend said it would have been impossible to guess where I was while making the phone call using the Jawbone Prime. But from my end of the call, I was able to hear slightly better while using the Plantronics Discover 975.

While using the Jawbone, I accidentally hung up on friends in midconversation a few different times because the place where I pressed to secure the earpiece in my ear was also the Talk button. I tried each of the Jawbone Prime’s three fit earbuds, three round earbuds and its included earloop, but none of these felt as comfortable as the Plantronics headset.

Both headsets are capable of using Multipoint technology, allowing them to connect to two Bluetooth devices at once. They’re each lightweight at .28 ounce and .35 ounce for the Plantronics and Jawbone, respectively; the Plantronics case weighs 1.27 ounces. According to each company, the Plantronics headset takes one-and-a-half hours to fully charge and lasts for five hours of talk time; the Jawbone takes 50 minutes to fully charge and lasts four and a half hours of talk time.

When both headsets were in front of me and I wanted to make a hands-free call, I reached for the Plantronics Discovery 975 because of its overall fit and feel in my ear. It stayed in place using a soft, gel insert that wasn’t uncomfortable, even after long conversations. Its sound quality was good enough for me.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Plantronics Wins Prestigious Best of CES Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering Award

Plantronics Savi Office Recognized for Unifying Voice Communications and Multimedia with Brilliant Audio Quality and One-Touch Simplicity

New York, New York – November 10, 2009 – Plantronics, Inc (NYSE: PLT), the world leader in communication headsets for over 48 years, today announced that the Savi™ Office Wireless headset System has been named a Best of International CES Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering Awards Winner in the Headphones category. Products entered in this prestigious program are judged by an esteemed panel of independent industrial designers, engineers and members of the media to honor outstanding design and engineering in cutting-edge products across 36 product categories.

Unified Communications Made Simple

Plantronics Savi Office is a multi-function Wireless headset system for Unified Communications that enables calling from both desk phones and computer softphones (VoIP). Savi Office supports softphone applications from leading providers, including Avaya, Cisco, IBM, and Microsoft, and other popular services, such as Google Talk and Skype with high-end wideband audio

In addition to basic call switching, Savi Office delivers advanced call control that enables the audio from the desk phone and the computer to be put on hold, muted or mixed together for easy conferencing. The system supports leading multimedia players so users can also listen to music and videos without missing a call. Savi Office uses the DECT™ 6.0 voice-dedicated frequency, providing users 350-feet of range from the base. Savi Office features adaptive power, meaning the headset uses less battery power when it is closer to the base system.

“Nearly 50 years of design and engineering innovations have gone into creating Savi Office,” said Elizabeth Bastiaanse Hamren, vice president of Product Marketing at Plantronics. “The CES Innovations Award further establishes that the distinctions between consumer and enterprise products are becoming increasingly blurred. Today’s workers demand business-class audio quality and reliability combined with the ease-of-use and styling of consumer devices.”

CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards

The prestigious Innovations Design and Engineering Awards have been recognizing achievements in product design and engineering since 1976. They are sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)^®, the producer of the International CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, and endorsed by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the voice of industrial design, committed to advancing the profession through education, information, community and advocacy.

Plantronics Savi Office will be displayed at the 2010 International CES, which runs January 7-10, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Innovations Design and Engineering Showcase will feature honorees by product category in the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center and will also be featured at CES Unveiled: The Official Press Event of the International CES on Tuesday, January 5.

The Innovations entries are judged based on the following criteria:

Engineering qualities, based on technical specs and materials used

Aesthetic and design qualities, using photos provided

The product’s intended use/function and user value

Unique/novel features that consumers would find attractive

How the design and innovation of the product compares to other products in the marketplace

Products chosen as an Innovations honoree reflect innovative design and engineering of the entries. Examples may include the first time various technologies are combined in a single product or dramatic enhancements to previous product designs

Driving the sound revolutionJabra CRUISER is the revolutionary Bluetooth® In-car Speakerphone that is equipped with Dual Microphone technology. This technology is currently utilized in all of Jabra’s high-end headsets, and has proven to drastically improve calling quality by eliminating background noise while enhancing voice. Thus, by successfully integrating this technology into Jabra’s new Bluetooth® In-car Speakerphone, Jabra CRUISER is set to revolutionize the market!Jabra CRUISER has many great additional features including it’s voice announcements, which not only provide pairing instructions and connectivity and battery status information, but also accesses your address book to announce the name of inbound callers*.Jabra CRUISER is also equipped with an FM Transmitter, A2DP and AVRCP, which allow you to stream and control stereo music from your phone to your car or home stereo. Enhancing accessibility, the multiuse function allows Jabra CRUISER to connect two Bluetooth® devices simultaneously.

Plantronics headsets are among the best headsets in the retail market today. They are manufactured by Plantronics Inc.  Plantronics introduced lightweight communication in the early 1960s and have since then become among the leading designers and manufacturers of headset products in the world. Among the most popular products from this company, include the SaviOffice wireless Plantronics headsets (WO100), the CS70 wireless Plantronics headsetsand the CS55 1.9 GHz wireless Plantronics headsets. The SaviOffice Plantronics headset combines the capabilities of a desktop Wireless headset with VoIP connectivity when used in a PC. With the advent of more ways to communicate over the internet such as Google talk and Skype, users are finding the SaviOffice Plantronics headsets more convenient. Previously, people would need separate headsets to use on the desktop phone and PC audio calls. With the SaviOffice Plantronics headsets, the user can also listen to music from a PC.
Most Plantronics headsets consolidate the approach calls from desktop telephone, VoIP applications and hand set lifter, where by the user only needs to push a button on the headset to answer a call. The Plantronics headsets come with noise canceling microphones, which makes communication clear. The Plantronics headsets are easily detachable form one Pc and can easily be attached to another therefore proving quite reliable to people who keep moving offices. Another popular among the Plantronics headsets is the Plantronics Voyager Pro. This headset is Bluetooth enabled and can easily network with other communication devices within 33 feet range. It is embedded with a CSR multimedia Flash and eSCO data transfer packets. It is also enhanced using the version 2.1 EDR technology. The microphone in these Plantronics headsets has noise canceling capabilities that work on 3 mm range. These Plantronics headsets are enabled with speaker driver, which means that the user can choose to broadcast his calls.
In addition to the wireless Plantronics headsets, the company also manufacturer corded headsets. The most common among these Plantronics headsets is the SupraPlus Monaural (H251N). This corded headset has an adjustable headband laid o a balanced design and an ear cushion made of soft foam. The microphone in the H251N has noise canceling capabilities. The H251N-UNC Plantronics headsets meet both the comfort and performance standards in phone intensive applications. The headset has a response nband, a stylish design and a flexible boom, which gives better sound accuracy to professionals. The HW251N wideband headset on the other hand is among the Plantronics headsets that are equipped with VoIP technology for better clarity, less errors and are enabled with background noise cancellation potential.
The encore Monaural Plantronics headsets (H91N) are ideal for discriminating professionals who like comfortable gadgets for all-day wear. These headsets are among the Plantronic headsets
that have tone control capabilities, and a noise-canceling microphone, which makes it ideal for business professionals. Other popular Plantronics headsets include the HW291N headset, the HW251N-CIS headset, the H251 headset and the H91 headset. Overall, Plantronics headsets are diverse just as they are many. They are classified into six groups covering in-the-ear/over-the-ear headsets, convertible-headbands and ear headsets, Headband-binaural headsets with voice tubes, Headband-binaural headsets with noise canceling capabilities, Headband-monaural headsets with voice tube and Headband-monaural headsets with noise canceling capabilities.

Headset Express will be at the Massive Technology show in Toronto on Thursday May 8^th, 2008.

The Massive Technology Show, Sponsored in part by Yahoo, will feature the latest in technology and business in a friendly environment.Among the highlights will be speaker sessions from:

-  Yahoo-  Google-   Microsoft OSG Canada for MSN-  Globe & Mail
The keynote speakers will be Andrew Sloss, Country Manager for eBay Canada, Bill Hutchison, Executive Director, Intelligent Communities for Waterfront Toronto, and Frances Edmonds, Director of Environmental Programs, HP Canada. Of course there will be about a billion visitors and a bunch of learning sessions, too, so I think this will be a great show. For more info, check out the Massive Technology Show website or their blog.
 If you plan to attend, don’t forget to stop by the Headset Express Booth to discuss our telephone and Gaming Headset sale items.

Toronto’s National Home Show kicks off this weekend and I fully plan to attend.  It is taking place at the Direct Energy Centre (in the Exhibition grounds) and it is running April 4th to 13th, 2008.

I  enjoy going to this show, I pick up a lot of great tips and information for my home in general and my home office in particular. If you are planning a remodel, a new home purchase, or even just a home organization overhaul, I strongly suggest checking out the Toronto’s National Home Show. And if you are looking to reorganize, renovate, or set up a new home office, remember that I have great pricing on new and refurbished headsets and telephone equipment for your home office

The Tickets are to Toronto’s National Home Show are:

Which means you can save $2 from the ticket price by ordering online.

Maybe I will see you there.

This week’s Office Ergonomics tip is for the home office worker.