HEARING IMPAIRMENT AMONG SPINNING MILL EMPLOYEES.

The industrial revolution has modernised the companies with machines before kept only by man. In recent times, noise pollution is one of the most permeative problems in the occupational environment which affects workers in various professions. The aim of this study was to detect the degree of hearing impairment in the exposed mill employees and compare it with the non-exposed subjects. 53 workers in the age group of 15-40 years from a spinning mill were included in the study. Healthy individuals in the same age group who were not exposed to noisy workplaces were taken as controls. Pure tone audiometry was performed in both cases and controls in the sound proof audiometry room. The results observed was high prevalence of noise induced hearing loss of about 81%. Majority of them had minimal sensorineural hearing loss since their duration of exposure is between 3 – 5 years. A dip at 4 kHz frequency which is characteristic of noise induced hearing loss was observed in 54.71% of the workers. The study implies the need of awareness about health hazards due to excessive noise levels. Hearing conservation programmes in industry must give attention to many factors which include identification of hazardous noise by sound pressure means, usage of protective devices, engineering improvements to reduce noise production and administrative measures to regulate the exposure of personnel.