SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- Hearing Protector Testing
- Notice Date
- 7/17/2007
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Acquisition and Assistance Field Branch (Cincinnati), 4676 Columbia Parkway M/S C-4, Cincinnati, OH, 45226, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- 2007-Q-09779
- Response Due
- 8/10/2007
- Archive Date
- 8/25/2007
- Description
- The Centers for Disease Control/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has a requirment for hearing protector testing as follows: BACKGROUND When engineering controls have not eliminated hazardous workplace noises, workers must rely on hearing protection devices (HPDs) to reduce noise exposures to within safe levels. Unfortunately, the attenuation provided by an HPD as it is actually worn by a worker is often only a fraction of the potential attenuation that the HPD can provide. Many factors influence how much attenuation a given HPD will provide. One of the key factors involves how a worker is trained to wear his/her hearing protector. PROJECT OBJECTIVES This effort has two objectives: 1. Determine the relative effectiveness of video training vs. the written instructions which accompany hearing protectors. 2. Determine the relative effectiveness of Experimenter Supervised Fit compared to the fit obtained by na?ve subjects using either video or written instructions. NIOSH wishes to determine the attenuation provided by four different earplugs: EAR Classic, Moldex PuraFit, Howard Leight Fusion (two sizes) and Howard Leight AirSoft (two sizes). The Classic and PuraFit are formable earplugs and Fusion and AirSoft are pre-molded earplugs. The plugs have been selected based upon prior existing datasets that can be used to evaluate a variety of research questions. NIOSH will provide the specific earplugs to the vendor upon award of the purchase order. The American national Standards Institute (ANSI) Standard S12.6-1997 (R2002) Methods for Measuring the Real-Ear Attenuation of Hearing Protectors shall be used to determine HPD attenuation. Each earplug will be used in two separate series of attenuation tests: 1. (a) video instructions provided by NIOSH on a data DVD using Quicktime, MPEG or Windows Media formats, (b) written instructions provided by the manufacturer, and (c) experimenter supervised fit. 2. (a) written instructions provided by the manufacturer, (b) video instructions provided by NIOSH, and (c) experimenter supervised fit. The only difference between condition 1 and 2 is the order of presentation of the video and written training materials. In both conditions, tests involving video or written training shall employ na?ve subjects in accordance with Method B of ANSI S12.6. Tests using an Experimenter Supervised Fit shall meet the conditions specified in Method A of ANSI S12.6. Given that the above conditions will be followed for each of the four earplugs to be tested, a total of 160 na?ve subjects will be required (20 subjects, 2 initial instruction conditions, and 4 ear plugs). Given also that there are three fitting conditions, two orders of testing, and four earplugs, a total of 24 sets of REAT trials shall be completed for this entire requirement. DELIVERABLES/REPORTING SCHEDULE: 1. The contractor shall provide a report of test results for each hearing protector and test condition. This report shall include the following measurements: a. Subject age, gender. b. Audiometric air-conducted hearing thresholds in decibels (dB HL) estimated to a 1-dB tolerance. c. Measurement of ear canal size (right and left ears). d. Training thresholds for unoccluded sound field audiograms in dB SPL for 5 repetitions per ANSI S12.6-1997. e. Ambient background noise levels for the test chamber in dB SPL per ANSI S12.6-1997 in octave bands 31.5-16,000 Hz at the beginning and end of the testing for all protectors. f. Unoccluded and Occluded sound field audiograms in dB SPL for all subjects and products for the frequencies 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000 Hz for the product(s) and conditions in which the subjects were tested. Subject number, Device, Test Condition (occluded/unoccluded) and Training Condition (Written, Video or Experimenter Supervised). g. Individual Attenuations for each pair of occluded and unoccluded thresholds. REPORTING SCHEDULE: Within 60 days following completion of data collection, a final report shall be completed using Microsoft Word. Microsoft Excel shall be used to report tabular data. Additional software may be used to report data subject to approval by the project officer. A hard copy and an electronic copy of all reports shall be submitted to the NIOSH Project Officer. The file(s) for the electronic reports shall be submitted on a compact disk (CD). MINIMUM CONTRACTOR QUALIFICATIONS: IN ORDER TO BE CONSIDERED FOR AWARD OF A PURCHASE ORDER, CONTRACTORS ARE REQUIRED TO SUBMIT DOCUMENTATION WITH THEIR QUALIFICATIONS. AWARD OF A PURCHASE ORDER SHALL BE MADE TO THE LOWEST QUOTATION THAT MEETS THE GOVERNMENT?S MINIMUM CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS AS FOLLOWS: 1. The contractor must provide evidence that they have academic training and experience necessary to conduct scientifically valid and reliable REAT measurements on human tests subjects. Examples of academic fields which would meet this requirement include (but are not limited to): audiology, hearing science, mechanical engineering, acoustical engineering, experimental psychology, and physics. Experience may be demonstrated by describing the number of years and number of hearing protector tests he/she has personally performed/supervised. The quality of this experience may be demonstrated by describing publications resulting from this work. 2. The contractor must provide evidence that they have appropriate laboratory facilities for conducting hearing protector attenuation tests. This shall be demonstrated by having the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Standards Services Division, National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP), certify that the test facilities and procedures meet those specified in ANSI S12.6 1997 (R 2002) Methods for Measuring the Real-Ear Attenuation of Hearing Protectors. 3. The contractor shall describe the process by which test subjects will be recruited. The contractor shall demonstrate his/her ability to recruit the necessary number of test subjects in order to complete all required attenuation measurements within four months following award of the purchase order. Request for Quotations number RFQ 2007-Q-09779 shall be available and posted to this announcement on or about July 31, 2007. Responsible sources that believe they possess the expertise and capabilities identified above are encouraged to submit a response to Request for quotations number 2007-Q-09779.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Cincinnati, Ohio
- Zip Code: 45226
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Zip Code: 45226
- Record
- SN01344011-W 20070719/070717220403 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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