The Surprising Statistics Behind Occupational Hearing Loss

It’s popular to think of hearing loss as an unavoidable problem connected with aging, or, more recently, as a consequence of the younger generation’s frequent use of iPods. But the numbers reveal that the greater problem may be direct exposure to loud noise at work.

In the United States, 22 million workers are exposed to potentially harmful noise, and a projected 242 million dollars is paid yearly on worker’s compensation claims for hearing loss, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

What’s more is that higher rates of hearing loss are found in increasingly noisier professions, showing that being exposed to sounds over a certain level progressively raises your risk for developing noise-induced hearing loss later in your life.

How loud is too loud?

A study performed by Audicus found that, of those who were not subjected to work-related noise levels over 90 decibels, only 9 percent suffered from noise-induced hearing loss at age 50. In comparison, construction workers, who are constantly subjected to sound levels as high as 120 decibels, experienced noise-induced hearing loss at the age of 50 at a rate of 60 percent!

It seems that 85-90 decibels is the ceiling for safe sound volumes, but that’s not the whole story: the decibel scale is logarithmic, not linear. That means that as you increase the decibel level by 3 decibels, the sound level roughly doubles. So 160 decibels is not two times as loud as 80—it’s about 26 times louder!

Here’s how it breaks down: a decibel level of 0 is barely noticeable, normal conversation is about 60 decibels, the ceiling for safety is 85-90 decibels, and the death of hearing cells takes place at 180 decibels. It’s the area between 85 and 180 that leads to noise-induced hearing loss, and as would be expected, the occupations with increasingly louder decibel levels have progressively higher rates of hearing loss.

Hearing loss by occupation

As the following table displays, as the decibel levels correlated with each profession increase, hearing loss rates increase as well:

Occupation Decibel level Incidence rates of hearing loss at age 50
No noise exposure Less than 90 decibels 9%
Manufacturing 105 decibels 30%
Farming 105 decibels 36%
Construction 120 decibels 60%

Any profession with decibel levels above 90 places its workforce at risk for hearing loss, and this includes rock musicians (110 dB), nightclub staff (110 dB), Formula One drivers (135 dB), airport ground staff (140 dB), and shooting range marshalls (140 dB). In every scenario, as the decibel level increases, the risk of noise-induced hearing loss grows.

Protecting your hearing

A recent US study on the prevalence of hearing loss in farming discovered that 92 percent of the US farmers surveyed were exposed to unsafe noise levels, but that only 44 percent claimed to use hearing protection equipment on a per day basis. Factory workers, on the other hand, tend to adhere to more stringent hearing protection regulations, which may explain why the incidence rate of hearing loss is moderately lower in manufacturing than it is in farming, despite exposure to near equivalent decibel levels.

All of the data point to one thing: the necessity of protecting your hearing. If you work in a high-risk occupation, you need to take the right protective steps. If avoiding the noise is not an alternative, you need to find ways to minimize the noise levels (best achieved with custom earplugs), in addition to making sure that you take consistent rest breaks for your ears. Controlling both the sound volume and exposure time will lower your chances of acquiring noise-induced hearing loss.

If you would like to discuss a hearing protection plan for your specific circumstances or job, give us a call. As hearing specialists, we can provide custom-made solutions to best safeguard your hearing at work. We also offer custom earplugs that, in addition to defending your hearing, are comfortable to wear and can maintain the natural quality of sound (in contrast to the muffled sound you hear with foam earplugs).

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