What is occupational deafness?
Occupational loss of hearing is defined as damage to the inner ear when noise and vibrations from work area equipment or other sources reach above the safe levels. Repeated exposure to loud noise or music, over a long time, may cause loss of hearing.
How do occupational deafness happen?
To start with, let’s briefly see how the ear works. Sound waves start by entering the outer ear; vibrations impact the ear drum after which they get transmitted immediately to the middle and inner ear. The inner ear contains a structure known as cochlear that is lined with microscopic hairs and filled with fluid. The fine hairs move with the vibrations converting the sound waves into nerve impulses. The sound we hear is a result
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Exposing ears to the loud noise destroy these hair cells causing possible loss of hearing. Complete deafness is however not the final result of this condition in a majority of cases. Though a total loss of hearing in both or one ear is possible, victims experience a buzzing, ringing sound hearing that goes in and out. Many of the victims may also experience difficulties in picking up sound vibrations correctly due to background noise.
What are the roles of the loud decibel levels?
Do you know what decibel levels are? If you don't, relax, here follows the meaning; noise is measured in sound pressure units called decibel levels using dBA (A-weighted sound levels). Decibel levels closely match the way the human ear perceives loudness. The sound levels are measured on a logarithmic scale meaning that a small change in decibel’s number results in a massive change in noise amount and potential damage to the hearing of a person.
The regulating body usually sets legal limits on workplace noise exposure. The legal limits are usually based on an employee’s time-weighted average over an eight-hour work day. For instance, OSHA’s PEL (permissible exposure limit) is 80 dBA for all employees working for eight hours a day. This standard uses a five dBA exchange rate. What this means is that when the noise level is added by five dBA, the length of time a worker can be exposed to a specific noise level is cut by