AUDITORY IMPACT OF AIRCRAFT NOISE ON CIVILIAN POPULATIONS: EXAMINATION OF THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE FOR EVIDENCE

摘要

In the main, these studies have been conducted where environmental noise does not appear to approach recognised occupational noise limits. Further, it may be that the intermittency of environmental noise may itself protect hearing from damage.In terms of methodology, the study using personal dosimetry [14] illustrates the dangers of the ecological fallacy, i.e. environmental presence does not equate to personal exposure.Clinical and statistical significance of threshold shifts is a problematic issue, where not reported in context of normal range of hearing in the population.Poor control of confounds continues to limit research, a challenge which may not be overcome via cross-sectional study methods.In summary, the equivocal evidence presented leads to the conclusion that there is currently little evidence of raised hearing thresholds in populations around civil or military airports and airfields, or that observed threshold shifts can be attributed to a particular noise source.