Sensorineural Hearing Loss Associated With Firearms

Factors affecting sound exposure from firing an SA80 high-velocity rifle

“…This difference in sound pressure levels is thought to be due to the 'head shadow effect' whereby the left ear is in direct line with the muzzle of the weapon and the right ear is shielded by the head. This finding is in agreement with other published research (Keim [19]; Moon et al [20]; Razaee et al [21]; Job et al [22]). The peak sound pressure levels shown in Fig.…”

Diagnosing Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Sustained During Military Service Using Deep Neural Networks

“…Means and standard deviations (SDs) of the HTLs for each database are given in Table 1 of Moore et al (2022b) . On average the individuals in MilDB1 and MilDB2 had greater hearing loss at high frequencies for the left ears than for the right ears, as has been reported previously for M-NIHL ( Keim, 1969 ; Moore, 2020 ; Lowe & Moore, 2021 ). This is probably mainly due to greater noise exposure of the left ear, produced, for example, by the way that a rifle is usually fired from the right shoulder, which results in partial shielding of the right ear via the head-shadow effect ( Keim, 1969 ).…”

“…On average the individuals in MilDB1 and MilDB2 had greater hearing loss at high frequencies for the left ears than for the right ears, as has been reported previously for M-NIHL ( Keim, 1969 ; Moore, 2020 ; Lowe & Moore, 2021 ). This is probably mainly due to greater noise exposure of the left ear, produced, for example, by the way that a rifle is usually fired from the right shoulder, which results in partial shielding of the right ear via the head-shadow effect ( Keim, 1969 ). Engdahl and Aarhus (2023) assessed ear asymmetry for two large cohorts of people who used recreational firearms and found that ear asymmetry was smaller for the recent cohort, consistent with the idea that the asymmetry is related to greater exposure of the left ear, on average, rather than to inherent differences of the left and right ears in susceptibility to NIHL.…”

Modification of a Method for Diagnosing Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Sustained During Military Service

“…Means and standard deviations (SDs) of the HTLs of each group are given in Table 2 . Note that on average both databases of military noise-exposed individuals had greater hearing loss at high frequencies for the left than for the right ears, as has been reported previously ( Keim, 1969 ; Lowe & Moore, 2021 ; Moore, 2020 ). This has been attributed to greater noise exposure of the left ear, on average, for example, because of the way that a rifle is usually fired from the right shoulder, which usually results in partial shielding of the right ear via the head-shadow effect ( Keim, 1969 ).…”