Proposed ISO Standard Determination of Occupational Noise Exposure and Estimation of Noise-Induced Hearing Impairment

摘要

Research on the relationship between noise exposure and noise-induced hearing loss has been very intense over the last 30 years, and steady progress has been made in spite of many remaining questions and unresolved problems regarding the mechanisms. For the time being, avoidance of excessive noise exposure is the only way to prevent noise-induced hearing loss; this is the reason why governments, industry, workers and their representatives have been looking for scientific exposure criteria and guidelines to prevent hazardous noise exposure as part of comprehensive hearing conservation programs. Although it was clear from the beginning that noise-induced hearing loss in a population with exactly defined noise exposure would exhibit a statistical distribution due to differences in biological susceptibility, the epidemiological statistical data were not available to describe quantitatively the difference between the percentage of people with impaired hearing in a noise exposed group and the percentage of people in a non-noise-exposed group, i.e., the risk of noise-induced hearing impairment.