ABSTRACT
The purpose of the present article is to review comfort studies on hearing protector devices. Comfort is probably the most important dimension for long-term worker acceptance and effective wear of hearing protectors in noise. A short digression has been made to introduce comfort work from the textile and clothing industries where models of comfort have been attempted and comfort research is much more sophisticated. Finally, presented are some recent efforts by NIOSH to examine issues of hearing protector comfort in greater detail. These efforts include a field study of a semi-custom earplug hearing protector.
Subject(s)
Consumer Behavior , Ear Protective Devices/standards , Equipment Design , Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced/prevention & control , Humans , National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, U.S. , Occupational Health , United StatesABSTRACT
Noise is a health risk. The only scientifically established adverse health effect of noise is noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Besides noise may affect quality of life and cause annoyance and sleep disturbance. The present scientific evidence of potential non-auditory effects of noise on health is quite weak. Whether health promotion works in relation to noise may be reflected by permanent hearing threshold shift development in population studies. Hearing impairment continues to be the most prevalent disability in Western societies. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) still rates noise induced hearing loss among the top ten work-related problems. Recent studies report that employees continue to develop noise induced hearing loss although to a lesser extent than before, in spite of occupational hearing conservation programmes. Besides socio-acusis and leisure noise seem to be an increasing hazard to hearing, also in young children and adolescents. This seems partly related to acute leisure noise exposure (e.g. toy pistols, amplified music). However, population studies increasingly find non-normal high-frequency hearing including the characteristic NIHL-"notch" around 6 kHz also in subjects who do not report noise exposure incidents or activities. Today 12.5% of US children 6-19 years show a noise-"notch" in one or both ears (n= 5249, Niskar et al 2001). A Norwegian county audiometry survey on adults >/= 20 years n=51.975) showed mean unscreened thresholds +10 dB at 6 kHz for both genders even or the youngest age group 20-24 years (Borchgrevink et al 2001). Accordingly, the present health promotion initiatives seem insufficient in relation to noise and noise-induced hearing loss.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Age Distribution , Aged , Audiometry , Canada/epidemiology , Child , Europe/epidemiology , Evidence-Based Medicine , Health Promotion/methods , Health Surveys , Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced/diagnosis , Humans , Japan/epidemiology , Leisure Activities , National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, U.S. , Noise/adverse effects , Population Surveillance , Risk Factors , Sex Distribution , United States/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Se presenta un resumen de los procedimientos obligatorios que comprenden el control de infección en un consultorio dental para evitar las infecciones cruzadas, contaminación y diseminación de patógenos. Además se hace hincapié en las obligaciones y responsabilidades del cirujano dentista en el manejo de los productos de desecho que se generan en un consultorio