Effects of record music on hearing loss among young workers in a shipyard

Effects of record music on hearing were studied by measuring the hearing loss among 175 shipyard workers ranging from 20 to 29 years, who did not have any history of ear or nose diseases, familial hearing loss or ingestion of oto-toxic drugs. There were 120 record-listeners and 55 non-listeners. It was found that there were more high frequency hearing impairments among the ears of record-listeners than non-listeners. Means of hearing losses of the record-listeners' ears were 4.73 dB and at 4000 Hz and 9.24 dB at 6000 Hz. Failure rates (percentage of ears which had 20 dB or more hearing loss) were 8.4% at 4000 Hz and 18.8% at 6000 Hz. Three factors, "monthly listening hours", "duration of listening to records" and "favourite type of music", contributed to the high frequency hearing loss. The young shipyard workers should be warned against non-occupational noise exposure, such as record music outside of the workplace, because this will significantly worsen hearing impairment due to the occupational noise exposure.