Occupational Health from an Otologic and Audiological Perspective

The world is becoming increasingly industrialized, and with it, noise pollution and occupational hazards. Concerns about noise and hearing loss have increased during the past century. Many reasons, such as increasing industrialization, motor vehicle popularity, noise pollution, and growing populations, contribute to the global intensification of noise pollution. In addition to the short-term impacts of high-amplitude acoustic trauma, long-term noise exposure has a multiplicative negative effect on health. Environmental noise is a prevalent and avoidable cause of hearing loss in industrialized cultures. Social causes refer to hearing loss due to exposure to loud noises during leisure activities or other non-work-related contexts. Workplace noise can cause permanent damage to your hearing, a condition known as occupational noise-induced hearing loss. Hearing loss caused by a single exposure to extremely loud noise is called acoustic trauma.