Hearing abilities of a group of mineworkers in relation to their age and estimated noise exposures. Final report

Using existing noise level measurements, detailed working records of individual miners and data on hearing abilities supplied by British Coal Medical Services, the hearing abilities of colliery Q coalmine workers have been investigated in relation to their age and noise exposure.B(A) with 83% of men exposed on average between 88 and 91 dB(A). The hearing levels of the colliery Q miners were, however, found to be similar to predicted from typical age-matched, non-noise exposed populations.These differences are not readily explicable from the data available and require further investigation. There was no significant correlation, after allowing for age,of hearing level with noise exposure amongst a subset of 197 men whose estimated lifetime noise exposure was well defined.In view of the forthcoming noise control regulations and the fact that we do not know whether colliery hearing levels of Q men are fully representative of the UK coal industry we recommend that a further cross-sectional study is undertaken to investigate hearing levels amongst miners from a number of collieries in relation to age.