Hearing Losses of Aircraft Repair Shop Personnel

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Abstract
The Navy Electronics Laboratory's warble-tone audiometer test was administered from magnetic tape to 1133 overhaul and repair shop personnel. They were tested in groups of 18. The results were analyzed (1) by percentiles within each ten year age grouping, and (2) by classifying each audiogram into one of four deafness categories: normal, conductive, nerve, and mixed. In both analyses the results were compared to similar analyses on a large reference non-noise-exposed population. The results show that roughly half the population is not adversely affected by noise. The worst hearing quarter of the noise-exposed population show considerable hearing losses especially at the higher frequencies when compared to the worst hearing quarter of the nonexposed population. The number of audiograms classified as “normal” drops from 78 percent to 66 percent, and the number classified as nerve deafness increases from 10 percent to 22 percent when the noise-exposed population is compared to the nonexposed population. A set of masking contours is included on a sound-level chart so that knowing the noise level in a prospective test room, the minimum level of hearing loss that can be measured in that room can be readily determined.

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