The Global Burden of Occupational Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

Details

• Personal Author:
  Concha-Barrientos M ; Fingerhut, Marilyn A. ; Nelson DI ; Nelson RY
• Description:
  Excessive noise is a global occupational health hazard with considerable social and physiological impacts, including noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). This paper describes the worldwide morbidity of occupational NIHL in the year 2000. The proportion of the population exposed to occupational noise was estimated using noise exposure data from the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), adjusted by data on the distribution of the work force by occupational category and economic sector, and economic activity rates in each WHO subregion. These values for the exposed population and risk measures for NIHL were used to develop estimates of the attributable fraction (AF) of adult-onset hearing loss resulting from occupational noise exposure. The AFs were applied to WHO estimates of total disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) from adult-onset hearing loss to estimate the DALYs due to occupational noise. Worldwide, 16% of the disabling hearing loss in adults (over 4 million DALYs) is attributed to occupational noise, ranging from 7% to 21% in the various subregions. The effects of the exposure to occupational noise are larger for males than females in all subregions and higher in the developing regions. Occupational noise is a significant cause of adult-onset hearing loss. The majority of this NIHL burden can be minimized by the use of engineering controls to reduce the generation of noise at its source. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Hazardous Substances Hearing Loss Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced Morbidity Noise Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Health-hazards Hearing-loss Morbidity-rates Noise-exposure Noise-induced-hearing-loss Occupational-exposure Occupational-hazards Occupational-health Risk-analysis Risk-factors
• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; District of Columbia ; Oklahoma ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 6 ; OSHA Region 8
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  446-458
• Volume:
  48
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20029124
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2005 Dec; 48(6):446-458
• Contact Point Address:
  Deborah Imel Nelson, Geological Society of America, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO, USA, 80301-9140
• Email:
  dnelson@geosociety.org
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1056acdcd5f360a94711daa8170294925e899cfddc88b4bfcc4377e432771b4af3ba472f581edd82c945aac0c17d18f1b519ea9a67ac557b6ca21fe33c463683
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/190176/cdc_190176_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 150.77 KB ]