On certain issues related to chronic exposure to occupational noise and impacts exerted by it on workers’ bodies (literature review)

Abstract

Chronic exposure to noise becomes especially significant when it occurs at workplaces since it results not only in deteriorated life quality of workers but also in disorders in their occupational activities. Occupational sensorineural hearing loss (SHL) holds the 1st rank place among occupational diseases caused by exposure to industrial physical factors. As any other work-related disease, sensorineural hearing loss makes it more difficult to preserve labor resources in the country and leads to significant economic losses. Given that, it is extremely vital to develop procedures for early diagnostics, to determine all possible risks that cause hearing loss directly or indirectly, and to create efficient prevention activities aimed at preserving health of workers exposed to noise at their workplaces. We reviewed literature data published over the last 5–7 years and analyzed more than 100 scientific works on the matter. Our review covers data from 61 sources that are the most relevant regarding tasks we aimed to solve in this research. Literature analysis allowed us to conclude that hearing loss caused by chronic exposure to noise at a workplace was a rather significant problem outlined by occupational medicine experts all over the world. It was shown that noise factor, apart from its direct impacts on the acoustic apparatus, produced apparent negative effects on many organs and systems causing various functional disorders in them which could directly or indirectly exacerbate hearing loss in workers.