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Hearing conservation in the primary aluminium industry

BACKGROUND: Noise-induced hearing loss has been an intractable problem for heavy industry. AIMS: To report our experience in reducing the incidence of age-corrected confirmed 10 dB hearing shifts (averaged over 2, 3 and 4kHz) in employees in the primary aluminium industry in Australia over the perio...

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Autores principales: Donoghue, A. M., Frisch, N., Dixon-Ernst, C., Chesson, B. J., Cullen, M. R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808245/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26470945
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqv168
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author Donoghue, A. M.
Frisch, N.
Dixon-Ernst, C.
Chesson, B. J.
Cullen, M. R.
author_facet Donoghue, A. M.
Frisch, N.
Dixon-Ernst, C.
Chesson, B. J.
Cullen, M. R.
author_sort Donoghue, A. M.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Noise-induced hearing loss has been an intractable problem for heavy industry. AIMS: To report our experience in reducing the incidence of age-corrected confirmed 10 dB hearing shifts (averaged over 2, 3 and 4kHz) in employees in the primary aluminium industry in Australia over the period 2006–13. METHODS: We analysed annual audiometric data to determine the number of permanent hearing shifts that occurred in employees in two bauxite mines, three alumina refineries and two aluminium smelters. Annual hearing shift rates were calculated based on the number of employees tested per year. Hearing conservation initiatives undertaken during the study period are described. An assessment of similar exposure group noise exposures was also undertaken to determine the magnitude of noise exposure reduction during the study period. RESULTS: Across all operations, hearing shift rates declined from 5.5% per year in 2006 to 1.3% per year in 2013 (P < 0.001). The decline in shift rates was greater in mines and refineries, where baseline shift rates were higher, than in smelter workers. Modest reductions in noise exposure occurred during the study period. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a substantial decline in hearing shift rates during the study period. We describe the hearing conservation initiatives that were collectively associated with this decline. We suspect these initiatives could be deployed relatively easily and at modest cost in other industries with noise-exposed employees.
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spelling pubmed-48082452016-03-29 Hearing conservation in the primary aluminium industry Donoghue, A. M. Frisch, N. Dixon-Ernst, C. Chesson, B. J. Cullen, M. R. Occup Med (Lond) Original Paper BACKGROUND: Noise-induced hearing loss has been an intractable problem for heavy industry. AIMS: To report our experience in reducing the incidence of age-corrected confirmed 10 dB hearing shifts (averaged over 2, 3 and 4kHz) in employees in the primary aluminium industry in Australia over the period 2006–13. METHODS: We analysed annual audiometric data to determine the number of permanent hearing shifts that occurred in employees in two bauxite mines, three alumina refineries and two aluminium smelters. Annual hearing shift rates were calculated based on the number of employees tested per year. Hearing conservation initiatives undertaken during the study period are described. An assessment of similar exposure group noise exposures was also undertaken to determine the magnitude of noise exposure reduction during the study period. RESULTS: Across all operations, hearing shift rates declined from 5.5% per year in 2006 to 1.3% per year in 2013 (P < 0.001). The decline in shift rates was greater in mines and refineries, where baseline shift rates were higher, than in smelter workers. Modest reductions in noise exposure occurred during the study period. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a substantial decline in hearing shift rates during the study period. We describe the hearing conservation initiatives that were collectively associated with this decline. We suspect these initiatives could be deployed relatively easily and at modest cost in other industries with noise-exposed employees. Oxford University Press 2016-04 2015-10-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4808245/ /pubmed/26470945 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqv168 Text en © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Donoghue, A. M.
Frisch, N.
Dixon-Ernst, C.
Chesson, B. J.
Cullen, M. R.
Hearing conservation in the primary aluminium industry
title Hearing conservation in the primary aluminium industry
title_full Hearing conservation in the primary aluminium industry
title_fullStr Hearing conservation in the primary aluminium industry
title_full_unstemmed Hearing conservation in the primary aluminium industry
title_short Hearing conservation in the primary aluminium industry
title_sort hearing conservation in the primary aluminium industry
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808245/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26470945
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqv168
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