Comparison of hearing effects of different noise patterns

ABSTRACT

In this study the effects on hearing induced by occupational exposure to continuous noise with added impulses, continuous noise and intermittent noise with varying intensity were compared. Personal noise dosimetry was used to measure the level of noise exposure and pure tone audiometry was utilized to measure hearing threshold. The results indicated that these types of noise produced similar audiographic patterns. Continuous noise with added impulses affected both high and low frequencies of hearing in contrast to the other 2 types which affected mainly the high frequencies. Effects of continuous noise with added impulses appear at a shorter duration of exposure than the other types of noise