Muffle while you work

I don’t know if it’s a habit carried over from the jobsite, but my dad has between five and ten transistor radios scattered around his house and in the backyard at any given time. One in the shed, one by the pool, two (at least) in the basement workshop, and, of course, the waterproof model hanging in the upstairs bath. He’s hopelessly addicted, which is why I think these Duluth Trading Co. QuieTunes AM/FM Radio Earmuffs are a doubly good idea - they would satisfy his audio habit while protecting what's left of his hearing.

At issue: the man never wears earplugs. Not downstairs in the workshop, not even while building a house from the ground up, an environment where noise levels routinely exceed 90 decibels. And he's not the only one - close to 30 million workers are exposed to hazardous noises while on the job according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A number of these same workers are also operating under the misconception that hearing loss is somehow reversible, similar to the way bad vision can be corrected by wearing glasses. Even digital hearing aids can't restore hearing lost in the higher decibel ranges like those experienced on a typical jobsite. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) provides these helpful FAQs about occupational hearing loss, addressing concerns like whether or not a person will be able to hear warning noises while wearing hearing protectors (short A: yes) and how often should someone be checked for hearing loss if they work as a carpenter or in a similarly noisy profession (A: annually).

This headset may make you feel like you should be guiding planes down a tarmac at first, but let's asses the pros: they're iPod-compatible, get good reception, and operate up to 150 hours on two AA batteries (included!). They're not what I would call cheap at $75, but well worth the price if you consider all the future What!?'s their faithful use might save you.