Speech Impaired by Half Masks Used for the Respiratory Tract Protection

Krzysztof Nowacki, Karolina Łakomy and Wojciech Marczak
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Krzysztof Nowacki: Department of Production Engineering, Faculty of Materials Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 2A Street, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Karolina Łakomy: Department of Production Engineering, Faculty of Materials Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 2A Street, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Wojciech Marczak: Faculty of Science and Technology, Jan Długosz University, Al. Armii Krajowej 13/15, 42-200 Częstochowa, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-12

Abstract: Filtering half masks belong to the group of personal protective equipment in the work environment. They protect the respiratory tract but may hinder breath and suppress speech. The present work is focused on the attenuation of sound by the half masks known as “filtering facepieces”, FFPs, of various construction and filtration efficiency. Rather than study the perception of speech by humans, we used a generator of white noise and artificial speech to obtain objective characteristics of the attenuation. The generator speaker was either covered by an FFP or remained uncovered while a class 1 meter measured sound pressure levels in 1/3 octave bands with center frequencies 100–20 kHz at distances from 1 to 5 m from the speaker. All five FFPs suppressed acoustic waves from the octave bands with center frequencies of 1 kHz and higher, i.e., in the frequency range responsible for 80% of the perceived speech intelligibility, particularly in the 2 kHz-octave band. FFPs of higher filtration efficiency stronger attenuated the sound. Moreover, the FFPs changed the voice timbre because the attenuation depended on the wave frequency. The two combined factors can impede speech intelligibility.

Keywords: filtering half masks; suppression; voice; protective measures; speech intelligibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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