Someone recently wrote me asking about intrinsically safe (see definition from Wikipedia below) hearing aids. Does anyone know if such aids are currently manufactured. Apparently Siemens used to manufacture a line of ATEX compliant aids: http://www.hearingreview.com/2012/07/siemens-hearing-instruments-receives-atex-certifications-for-explosive-environments/
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As a user of HAs, I’m very frustrated at the difficulty in finding the detailed tech specs of HAs. If you don’t have access to that as an audiologist then the HA manufacturing industry is being too secretive. FWIW, Honeywell does still make some hearing protection and communications gear marketed as “intrinsically safe”.
Which HA model do you need detailed specs of?
Thanks for the offer, but the answer is pretty much all of them. How do I make a decision without that data? I don’t want to hi-jack the OP’s thread, but if he as an audiologist doesn’t have a lot of tech data available there’s a problem.
IP ratings are readily available, but my feeling here is the ATEX compliance testing, etc, just isn’t happening in this industry. I could be wrong.
This post got me thinking—is it true that rechargeable hearing aids should not be used in areas where oxygen is being administered—for intrinsic safety purposes?
This industrial vacuum cleaner manufacturer says ATEX compliance testing is irrelevant in North America and that NRTL is the OSHA requirement (at least for vacuums in explosive dust environments). Maybe that’s why you couldn’t find anything.
. What is ATEX Certification? Is It Applicable in North America? - Industrial Vacuum Blog
The wiki article explains that there are different compliance schemes based on country. I couldn’t find data on any for hearing aids but started with atex since most aid manfs are Europe based.
I find that if you never have visited a site, you can click on the Professional links and you will get access to the specs that they publish. Once you click on a Consumer link, the professional ones are often hidden or disabled. This would require clearing cache and/or cookies to get a fresh start at a given site. Obviously not valid for all sites and some companies even use different domains for their Pro versus Consumer info.
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The easiest thing is just to do an advanced Google search in the format of “resound linx 3d 62 specs filetype:pdf”
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