IntroductionTinnitus is considered the third worst symptom affecting humans. The aim of this article is to assess complaints by workers with tinnitus exposed to environmental and occupational noise.Methodology495 workers went through an epidemiological survey at the Audiology Department of the Center for Studies on Workers’ Health and Human Ecology, from 2003 to 2007. The workers underwent tonal and vocal audiometry, preceded by a clinical and occupational history questionnaire. Two-factor ANOVA and Tukey were the statistical tests used. All the analysis set statistical significance at α=5%.FindingsThere was a higher prevalence of occupational tinnitus (73.7%), a predominance of female domestic workers (65.4%) in cases of environmental exposure, and predominance of male construction workers (71.5%) for occupational exposure. There was a significant difference in workers with hearing loss, who showed a mean speech recognition index (SRI) of 85%, as compared to healthy workers with a mean SRI greater than 93.5%. Signs and symptoms, speech perception, and interference in sound localization with the type of noise exposure (environmental versus occupational) comparisons found no significant differences.ConclusionStudied group’s high prevalence of tinnitus, major difficulties in speech recognition with hearing loss and the presence of individuals with normal hearing with both types of exposure justify the importance of measures in health promotion, prevention, and hearing surveillance. The findings highlight the importance of valuing the patients’ own perception as the first indication of tinnitus and hearing loss in order to help develop appropriate public policies within the Unified National Health System (SUS).

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There are many different services within a hospital. This means different types of noise which can be considered as acoustic pollution. Knowing that preterm infants exposed to high amounts of noise in the NICU are at a much higher risk because of their neurologic immaturity and physiologic instability, that excessive levels of noise also affect the persons and it can also impede some studies on patients, it was proposed to evaluate the Sound Pressure Level in some services of the Instituto de Maternidad, Tucumán, Argentina. There were evaluated the Level III NICU, the laundry service, a physical space destined for a service of evoked potential and a neonatal incubator under working conditions. The measurements were performed with a type II sonometer (CENTER 322) and it was also used an incubator analyzer (FLUKE INCU) for the incubator. The average values obtained were of 63.6 dBA for the NICU, 82.5dBA for the laundry room, 52.7 dBA for the evoked potential room and 62.8 dBA in the inside of the incubator under 64 dBA in the outside. The reports were documented in compliance with the appropriate standards.

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