- Title
- Pre-employment hearing threshold levels of 59,601 Australian male coal miners compared to an otologically normal international male population (ISO7029:2019)
- Creator
- Liebenberg, Adelle; Nie, Valerie M.; Brichta, Alan M.; Ahmadi, Sima; James, Carole L.
- Relation
- International Journal of Audiology Vol. 62, Issue 8, p. 729-737
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14992027.2022.2088625
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2023
- Description
- OBJECTIVE: This study compared the pre-employment median hearing threshold level (HTL) distribution from a population of coal miners from New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to an otologically normal, age-matched population described by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) ISO 7029:2019, to determine any differences. DESIGN: This was an observational, retrospective, repeated cross-sectional study. STUDY SAMPLE: De-identified audiometric records of 59,601 male employees entering NSW coal mining in three representative five-year periods between 1991 and 2015 were utilised. RESULTS: The median HTL deviation of the mining population was statistically significantly different (p < 0.05) from the ISO population, for almost all analyses. Overall, the mining population cohorts have higher (worse) median HTLs compared to the ISO population. The greatest difference occurs at 4 kHz in older age groups, likely indicating noise-induced hearing loss. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that some NSW coal mine workers commence their careers with evidence of pre-existing hearing loss (HL), in an industry with excessive noise exposures. These results provide Australian mining and other noisy industries with evidence to support a review of hearing conservation strategies to improve mitigation of hearing loss across the working lifespan.
- Subject
- hearing threshold level; pure-tone audiometry; otologically normal; noise induced hearing loss; ISO7029; mining; SDG 7; SDG 9; SDG 12; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1486438
- Identifier
- uon:51849
- Identifier
- ISSN:1499-2027
- Language
- eng
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