HUM A N FA C TOR 5, 1983,25(4),425-429 Continuous Noise and Sensorineural Hearing

Twenty-nine audiometric tests undergone by an employee over a 26-year employment period in a structural maintenance shop at a large petrochemical company are analyzed. At re-tirement, the employee was diagnosed as having irreversible sensorineural hearing loss. Since company studies yielded average noise level measurements of 90 dBA within 1.83 m of operating equipment, the relationship between continuous noise and sensorineural hearing loss in the conversational frequencies is examined. Results suggest that the rela-tionship is linear, and that auditory capability consistently deteriorates over long periods of exposure