[Medical surveillance of occupational hearing loss]

Audiometric tests at noisy workplaces serve as a means for the early detection of noise-induced hearing loss. As such a tool for secondary prevention, the conditions under which they are to be made and the factors which may influence their effectiveness: sources of error, hearing loss due to old age, testing intervals, significant hearing loss readings and criteria for referral to ear specialists are analyzed. These aspects are also compared with that which has been set forth is the Decree recently published regarding the medical checkups of workers exposed to noise, in which these criteria are not taken into account. Some norms to complement this Decree, in which, in addition to describing the conditions for carrying out audiometric tests, proposals regarding methods for interpreting the results thereof, measures for following up on said results and proposals for an epidemiological analysis of the data must be made. Advantage must also be taken of this occasion to define new norms for qualification as a professional and the medical-legal compensation for on-the-job noise-induced hearing loss.