OSHA Has a Lot to Say about Noise!

OSHA, which is under the United States Department of Labor and stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration, takes great interest in occupational noise exposure. You don’t see articles about it online very often, or on the local or national news, but twenty-two million workers are exposed to potentially damaging noise at work each year. Last year, U.S. business paid more than $1.5 million in penalties for not protecting workers from noise. To put it in even larger numbers, an estimated $242 million is spent annually on workers' compensation for hearing loss disability.

If you suspect that your own workplace is too noisy, here are some clues that you’re right. From the OSHA website:

• You hear ringing or humming in your ears when you leave work.
• You have to shout to be heard by a coworker an arm's length away.
• You experience temporary hearing loss when leaving work.

If you’re reading this, chances are you don’t work in an environment where machinery and heavy

equipment are involved. Those situations require other solutions to the problems. But regardless of your home or work situation, noise controls are the first things you can implement against excessive noise exposure. With the reduction of even a few decibels, danger to your hearing is reduced and communication is improved.

This is exactly when you’ll want a Yacker Tracker. You set the acceptable decibel level before the voice or siren go off,  and if you like, you can set your unit to be only visual in situations where people are hearing-impaired, or where you require complete silence. Maybe backstage at a play? Please Take a Look to see just how it works.

We’re pleased to offer two versions of the Yacker Tracker. We also have a Deluxe model. Please See our Products to decide which one is right for you and your needs. For More Information just click and you can read our Help and FAQ page. There is also a page on our site for you to contact us directly.

Always do the best you can to save your hearing. And thank you for making us part of it. If you have some stories to share, we’d love to hear them. Enjoy your quieter and more peaceful life!

Please see our Yacker Trackers to choose the one that’s right for you and your work environment. If you think about the unwanted noise in your daily life, you will probably thing of other uses for a Yacker Tracker. We have thought of some of them, too. Yacker Tracker Uses will take you to our Idea Page. If you click on our Blog you will see even more ideas. (We never stop thinking about you!)

We hope that we can be of help. Everyone is entitled to some peace of mind. And that’s usually accomplished in a quieter setting.

To your health!

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A Quieter Day Care!

Don’t you just love children? They fill your heart and your soul. They bring you joy and almost more smiles than anyone is entitled to. Those are probably just a few of the reasons that you either own a daycare facility or work in one. You might have your own business at your home, or you might work for a corporation dealing with the children of employees. You might be part of an organization that takes care of children after school. In any of these situations the kids you work with can be anywhere from infant age up to mid-teens. Whether you deal with two or two hundred children on a daily basis, you certainly know how much attention and concentration and good will it takes!

Amidst all of the activities and eating and naps and lessons, does just the sound of the room ever get to be too much for you? Do you ever feel as though you’re not interacting with normal children but with children raised by wolves? You’re not alone. And we have just what you need!

A Yacker Tracker will tell children of all ages, leaving out the infants, when noise is too much noise. You set the level that is acceptable, and when the noise in the room exceeds that, the Yacker Tracker changes color and the siren/speaker will come on. Learning how to control themselves is a plus of day care. You teach and show kids not to kick each other, or pull each other’s hair, or eat someone else’s lunch. You teach them how to share and how to be kind and how to play together. The Yacker Tracker is another piece of the puzzle. Kids making noise is a normal part of life. Your reaching for an aspirin every hour is not.

Once kids learn to control their “inside” and “outside” voices you may be surprised by the gratitude that their parents genuinely feel. And a lack of ear-splitting noise will make whatever day care you work in a happier place.

Please See our Products and select the one that’s right for you!  We’d be delighted to be part of making your day as calm and productive as possible.

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Curb Residential and Party Noise!

You are no doubt familiar with Airbnb by now. It’s a worldwide company that deals with homeowners renting out their homes for short-term rentals. (There are a few other companies in this business now as well, but Airbnb is the most well-known.) It’s appealing on many counts, but more and more reports are surfacing publicly about the damage, both perceived and real, that the short-term renters are responsible for. One of the biggest complaints, lodged by neighbors and neighborhoods of the rentals, is noise.

It’s normal to want to go on vacation and party. Kick off your shoes and have a great time. But frequently the kinds of parties you might have in a short-term rental aren’t the same as the ones you’d have in your own home. In your own home you know your neighbors and you probably don’t want to disturb them until the wee hours of the morning with your revelry. You might make them angry and they might even call the cops! And this could easily affect your relationship, which up until now has been pretty good. In a short-term rental you have no idea who is next door or down the street. And you’re not staying for that long, so..... whatever.

For both the owners and the short-term renters to make this work, we suggest installing at least one Yacker Tracker in the rentals. Set to an appropriate noise level for the neighborhood, and it will serve as a gentle reminder about when normal noise is too much noise. See if you can put the use of the Yacker Tracker(s) into your rental agreement. This might make some people think twice about renting, but they’re really not the people you want anyway. You want responsible renters, who will respect your property and its surroundings.

It will serve you well to be discerning in whom you rent to. While Airbnb can be a great way to generate some added income, you don’t want it to cause any problems or cause anyone to try to stop you from taking advantage of it. Yacker Tracker will help smooth the way for all of you to make the best of this experience!

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us and tell us all about it. Send us a picture or video and we will post it!

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Monitoring Pool Noise Can Save a Life

As summer is quickly approaching, it’s time to think about pool safety. If you have a pool at your home or are lucky enough to have access to one, we’d like to share some facts that are both critical and perhaps surprising.  We have excerpted some information here, but to read more, please see Unintentional Childhood Drowning.

• For the years 2005-2009, there were an average of 3,533 fatal unintentional drownings (non-boating related) annually in the United States — about ten deaths per day.
• About one in five people who die from drowning is a child 14 or younger. For every child who dies from drowning, another five receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.
• Children ages 1 to 4 have the highest drowning rates. In 2009, among children 1 to 4 years old who died from an unintentional injury, more than 30% died from drowning.  Among children ages 1 to 4, most drownings occur in home swimming pools. Drowning is responsible for more deaths among children 1-4 than any other cause except congenital anomalies. 
• Among those 1-14, fatal drowning remains the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death behind motor vehicle crashes.

We know that you are concerned with keeping children safe. So are we. When children are playing in a pool or in a pool area there is a lot of happy noise to be heard. Sometimes it’s so happy that it’s almost deafening! While having fun is a wonderful part of life – and childhood – if the noise might drown out a child calling in distress, or you might not hear your child at all, this could signal a serious problem. Since children should always be watched while in this situation, if you turn away for even a moment you could be inviting danger. With a Yacker Tracker installed you will be able to monitor the noise level at all times. You set the limit of acceptable noise and you set it so that you can clearly hear the ongoing activity. If the area is larger, you may want more than one Yacker Tracker. There is nothing more dearly than the life of your child. Show all of the children, and adults, how the Yacker Tracker works and have a safer experience at the pool. Marco Polo!

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us and tell us all about it. Send us a picture or video and we will post it!

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Noise is a Distraction!

Have you ever sat at your desk at work and heard someone in the next cubicle or at the next desk talking loudly on the phone or to another co-worker? Have you ever been to a board meeting and the person who always talks at the top of his or her lungs is about to take center stage? How about at a committee or association meeting? The person with the decibel-blasting voice has a hand up and you can’t help but cringe in advance. If only it weren’t impolite to say “shhhh” or “oh, please” in these situations. But as a person of great civility, you know that you can’t. So what to do? Install a Yacker Tracker!

Noise is a great distraction when you’re trying to get work done, or to understand something or even to keep a thought in your head. We’re talking about intrusive noise. You can’t help the sound of a garbage truck, or a fight next door, or a sonic boom. But it’s common sense to control the noise that you can. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, noise also affects people’s health by increasing general stress levels and aggravating stress-related conditions such as high blood pressure, coronary disease, peptic ulcers and migraine headaches. Continued exposure only makes it worse. You don’t get used to it.  And on top of that, stress resulting from unwanted noise may decrease higher brain function, impairing learning and memory. All of which are very important to hang on to when you’re in a business or any setting.

When you install a Yacker Tracker in a meeting room you won’t offend anyone, and you might well be bringing relief to many others like yourself. When ideas and emotions are vented in public it seems only normal that voices would rise. Especially over divisive or even new ideas. When the yellow light on the Yacker Tracker goes on it’s a gentle reminder to the speaker that the approved sound level is about to be broached. When you install one in your office (if you’re the boss, go for it. If you’re not, ask first!) you might sense the calm that settles in. No one will want to hear the siren go off when the light turns red, so it’s a perfect tool for keeping things under control. You’ll be surprised at how much more effective it is to accomplish goals when courtesy reigns!

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us and tell us all about it. Send us a picture or video and we will post it!

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Yacker Tracker featured in Chico Enterprise-Record!

Did you know that the Yacker Tracker was featured in a newspaper in Chico, California? Learn a little bit more about the Yacker Tracker, its success in the classroom and a little bit about Fran in this article.

CHICO – The stop light turned red Friday after recess, setting off the Yacker Tracker siren in a first-grade classroom.

The 6- and 7-year-old students at Marigold School knew that meant they were being too loud. But they didn't know a Chico woman invented the machine.

Teacher Brian Holderman said he first saw the Yacker Tracker in a colleague's classroom and learned that a friend, Fran Rebello, conceptualized, designed and sold the device. So he called her, got one and started using it in his classroom about five years ago.

"I think first-graders forget how to whisper," Holderman said.

The machine is shaped like a stop light, with lights that illuminate at an OK noise level of green, somewhat noisy at yellow and too loud for red, which sets off a warning. The decibel level can be adjusted depending on desired noise level.

"It puts the students in control," Rebello said. "It's self-monitored. So the teacher isn't always telling them to be quiet.”

Read the full article at Local inventor catches eyes, ears, national attention.
Original - By KATY SWEENY - ChicoER

We are proud of the help that the Yacker Tracker gives to teachers, hospitals, and wherever else it may be useful. Pick up your Yacker Tracker or the Yacker Tracker Deluxe, today.

And, if you'd like to join in and add your testimonial about how using the Yacker Tracker has helped you, or some innovative and/or unusual ways you use it, please contact us and tell us all about it.

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Teachers using Yacker Tracker around the world!

A few of the videos we have found published.

Mrs. Hofer brings back an old friend… The Yacker Tracker!

Published by MrsBlairClark

This teacher goes over the features of the Yacker Tracker and demonstrates it live in his classroom.

Published by Martin Yaney

If you have an interesting story, images or video about how Yacker Tracker has helped you, or some innovative and/or unusual ways you use it, please use the Contact Form on our website and tell us all about it!

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A Brief History of the Yacker Tracker

It was one of the toughest courses the university had for its 5th year graduate students. The course, for teaching majors, was Classroom Management, and is arguably one of the toughest tasks that teachers face: techniques of keeping your classroom calm and quiet for appropriate learning environments.

Then in 2001, the Yacker Tracker won the new product ‘Best of Show’ award from the NSSEA (National School Supply and Equipment Association)

In 2003, Fran introduced the Deluxe Yacker Tracker featuring a handy remote control.

A few years later in 2011, the Yacker Tracker was redesigned to be more efficient, featuring the phrase “Quiet Please” in 7 languages due in large part to the Yacker Tracker’s success with hospitals and medical offices, and also partially due to new OSHA requirements.

The year was 1999 and Fran Rebello, then a teacher at the university, came up with a rather ingenious idea, an invention known as TAG, short for The Attention-Getter. When she combined that with another teacher who was using a sound meter, the original Yacker Tracker was born.

2012 – Testimonial

“Your contribution to our school has impacted the behavior of over 500 students. The Yacker Tracker has helped give the students a better self-monitoring tool during lunch time. Students are able to see the lights go off when they are getting too loud and then they quiet down. There is a reward system in place for when the students do well and don't trigger the red light to go off too many times. The primary grades have been extremely successful since the implementation of the Yacker Tracker and continue to do well. The intermediate grades are still getting used to the Yacker Tracker. Thank you so much for supporting our cause. Because of you, our students are eating lunch and are better prepared for the classroom.”

With gratitude,
Ms. Warrington

Then in 2013, the Yacker Tracker was used in a television documentary on how loud train whistles were at different distances, in other words, just how many miles away a person could hear train whistles and how loud they were at those distances.

In 2015, the Yacker Tracker was included in the book Mastering Leadership: A Vital Resource for Health Care Organizations, as a tool to measure and self-monitor noise levels in hospital waiting rooms, nurses stations, and surgery rooms.

Again, if you'd like to join in and add your testimonial about how using the Yacker Tracker has helped you, or some innovative and/or unusual ways you use it, please contact us and tell us all about it.

There's much more to this story that we will bring you in upcoming posts.

The one and only original Yacker Tracker by AGI Attention-Getters, Inc!

Yacker Tracker is one of the most original, kid-friendly noise control products that have ever been invented.

The familiar traffic light signal design is put to appropriate use in measuring the amount of sound in a classroom, hospital patient hallways, just about anywhere.

You can find the Yacker Tracker in schools, hospitals, and even in a mine in Australia. Over the next few months we will tell you a little bit about the history of Yacker Tracker, the background of its' creator, Fran Rebello, and even some testimonials from people who use it. On that note, if you'd like to join in and add your testimonial about how using the Yacker Tracker has helped you, or some innovative and/or unusual ways you use it, please contact us and tell us all about it.

So hang out with us as we continue this fascinating and inspiring tale throughout the year!

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