Prevalence of hearing loss in the United States by industry

Abstract

Workers in the Mining, Manufacturing, and Construction industries need better engineering controls for noise and stronger hearing conservation strategies. More hearing loss research is also needed within traditional "low-risk" industries like Real Estate.

Hearing Impairment Among Noise-Exposed Workers — United States, 2003–2012

“…Findings of increasing prevalence with age and a higher prevalence among males were expected and consistent with other research (2,4,8). Industry results highlight the high prevalence of hearing loss within the noise-exposed working population and the need for continued prevention efforts, especially in the mining, construction, and manufacturing sectors.…”

“…Industry results highlight the high prevalence of hearing loss within the noise-exposed working population and the need for continued prevention efforts, especially in the mining, construction, and manufacturing sectors. The proportion of mining sector employees exposed to hazardous noise (76%) was the highest in any sector (3), and studies have consistently indicated elevated risks for occupational hearing loss within this sector (2,4). Occupational hearing loss risks have also been established within the construction sector (2,4); however, current noise regulations do not require audiometric testing for construction workers (2).…”

Development of a comprehensive Blast-Related Auditory Injury Database (BRAID)

“…After matching EMED and DOEHRS-DR data and removing audiograms that met exclusionary criteria (4%), 92 percent of the original audiograms were retained, thus our database comprised 51,516 audiograms from 16,525 servicemembers. This retention rate compares favorably with a large prevalence study conducted by Masterson et al that retained 74 percent of the original test data [39]. Development of the BRAID identified that approximately 97 percent of deployment-injured Navy and Marine Corps personnel had at least one audiogram in the DOEHRS-DR system.…”

Health hazard evaluation report: evaluation of impact and continuous noise exposure, hearing loss, heat stress, and whole body vibration at a hammer forge company.

“…Audiometric screening based on these guidelines has been used in previous NIOSH research [Heyer et al 2011;Masterson et al 2013]. After screening, the dataset had 4,750 audiograms from 483 workers.…”