Abstract

It is generally recognized that the environmental noise of the various working places thought to be the cause of hearing disturbance. This survey was carried out to evaluate the prevalence of noise-induced occupational hearing loss among the weavers of 39 textile industries in Taegu, Korea. For this survey, 432 male workers and 2,023 female workers were examined their hearing acuity by individual pure tone threshold determination test(air conduction), from November, 1972, to January, 1973. Main findings were as follows: 1. The mean of noise intensity of the 54 weaving rooms was, in over all, 95.6+/-4.2dB (A), 95.9+/-4.0dB (B) and 96.2+/-3.9dB (C). 2. The mean hearing threshold levels by service years in the 4,000 Hz were intensively increased from 1st to 3rd year and slightly decreased, than that of 3rd year, from after 3rd to 5th year, after 5th year that increased slightly. 3.The mean hearing threshold levels by frequencies were highest in the 4,000Hz(male:25.0+/-11.3dB, female:22.0+/-10.2dB) and followed by 6,000, 8,000 and 3,000Hz. 4. The mean hearing threshold level of the 6,000Hz(male:17.0dB, female:17.9dB)was higher than that of 4,000Hz(male:16.4dB, female:17.1dB) in the 1st service year. 5. The mean hearing loss of examinees was 16.2+/-8.0dB in male and 15.4+/-7.8dB in female.