Case study using task-based, noise-exposure assessment methods to evaluate miner noise hazards
Mining Engineering
, 2002, Vol. 54, No. 11, pp. 27-31
Seal, A.B.; Bise, C.J.
ABSTRACT:
In 1993, otologists Robert and Joseph Sataloff stated that, “hearing loss due to occupational noise exposure is our most prevalent industrial malady” (Dembe, 1996). Ironically, excessive noise has long been known to detrimentally affect hearing. In 1700, Ramazzini in De Morbis Artificium Diatriba described how workers who hammer copper “have their ears so injured by that perpetual din . . . that workers of this class become hard of hearing, and if they grow old at this work, completely deaf” (Wright, 1964). Prior to the Industrial Revolution, comparatively few people were exposed to high levels of noise in the workplace. With the advent of steam power during the Industrial Revolution, large-scale occupational noise exposure began. In 1874, the prevalence of hearing loss in workers who fabricated steam boilers was so high that the problem was known as “boiler-maker’s deafness.”
