A few points to consider. I am a professional audio engineer mixing live bands all the time, I am also a bass player having played in bands for many years. I used to wear custom made ear plugs when playing with bands, when I would be mixing bands and put them in when the music would be so loud, when riding my motorcycle, when riding my bicycle, when sleeping. Over time I lost my hearing in one ear. To test what this is like put your finger in one of your ears and imagine mixing and doing your job that requires listening, it's not easy!

What had happened was, over time of constantly putting ear plugs in my ears I kept packing the wax deeper and deeper into my ear eventually blocking my hearing. I went to the doctor and he flushed my ears out using a technique called ear lovage. The stuff that came out was incredible! My hearing was restored and better than I could ever remember it! I had them do my other ear and not quite as much but my hearing was much improved making my job of mixing of bands so much better again!

The doctor had said to only ever use a washcloth to clean my ears, no q-tips. What I do now is put my headphones on when the music is so loud with the volume sometimes off, it is not as good as the ear plugs but my hearing has remained good, now several years after this has happened. You really don't know how valuable your hearing is until it's gone!

With all this said, I never felt unsafe using ear plugs riding my motorcycle, bicycle, had problems hearing when I was playing in bands, and always slept like a baby while sleeping. I did not use them when I was getting the mix set, only after and if things were so loud. I did though wonder while sleeping if I would hear a fire alarm? I have since found out like the OP said about state laws.

I looked into that a bit and talking with a police officer found out ear pugs are illegal to use for riding a motorcycle, bicycle, car, etc. You are not allowed to have earbuds in both ears listening to music from a iPod or CD player. You are however allowed to use ONLY your phone for phone calls and THEN you can only have ONE ear bud in NOT both.

The officer said it would be hard to prove if you were using your phone and listening to a phone call or listening to music and would probably not stop someone to check it out. When comparing using ear plugs to a deaf person he said they have a condition that can't be helped, wearing ear plugs can be prevented. This is only my experience others could be different so take it for what it's worth (to you)? Good luck with mixing I like my job and when you like your job it's not like work!