Hearing Health Risk in a Population of Aircraft Carrier Flight Deck Personnel

Abstract

This study evaluated the risk to hearing health associated with duty on the flight deck of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier. Descriptive data includes time-weighted average noise exposure and an evaluation of temporary threshold shift for a group of nonaviator flight deck personnel (FD), and a comparison of accrued permanent threshold shift among three shipboard occupational groups that had been matched for years of military service. The study participants included 76 FD personnel in a high-exposure group, 77 engineers in a moderate-exposure group, and 52 administrative personnel who were considered to have low occupational noise exposure. The study found a mean FD time weighted average of 109 dBA over workdays averaging 11.5 hours. Only 2 (4%) of 52 administrative personnel had any appreciable hearing loss (defined as worse than 20 dB at any frequency 1,000 through 4,000 Hz), whereas FD and engineers demonstrated 17% and 27% hearing impairment, respectively.

Hearing status among cabin crew in a Swedish commercial airline company

“…In addition, there is a Swedish database with hearing threshold levels for a population without occupational noise exposure Arlinger 2002, 2004). There are a few studies on hearing loss in military pilots (Lorente et al 2005) and commercial pilots (Gasaway 1986;Begault et al 1998;Rovig et al 2004), but we found no previous publications on hearing loss in cabin crew.…”

Low-level otoacoustic emissions may predict susceptibility to noise-induced hearing loss

“…The average workday was 11.5 h. Unweighted peak noise levels were regularly clipped by the dosimeter's 150 dB SPL ceiling, so these noise levels are underestimated. Rovig et al ͑2004͒ also found that in sailors with 4 or more years of service, 30% of flight deck crew and 37% of engineering crew had audiometric thresholds greater than 25 dB HL ͑at 1, 2, 3, or 4 kHz͒, compared with 5% of administrative crew. Many sailors reported not wearing double hearing protection because they felt it jeopardized speech communication.…”

“…Many of the berthing spaces are directly below the flight deck-some sailors even wear hearing protection while sleeping. Dosimetry data from a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, reported by Rovig et al ͑2004͒, showed 8-h time-weighted averages ͑using an 85 dBA damage-risk criterion with a 3 dB exchange rate͒ of 109 dBA ͑ranging from 96 to 120 dBA͒ for flight deck crew and 92 dBA ͑ranging from 79 to 98 dBA͒ for engineering crew. The average workday was 11.5 h. Unweighted peak noise levels were regularly clipped by the dosimeter's 150 dB SPL ceiling, so these noise levels are underestimated.…”

Pharmacological rescue of noise induced hearing loss using N-acetylcysteine and acetyl-l-carnitine

“…Many service members are exposed to continuous and intermittent noise of fixed wing and rotary aircraft as well as vehicle noise that range from 100 to 140 SPL and to weapons that produce 140-185 peak SPL sound intensity. Sound levels from these military operations can easily exceed the protective capacity of current HPDs (Rovig et al, 2004;Marine Corps Lessons Learned, 2005).…”