Abstract

SIERRA CALDERON, Darío David  and  BEDOYA MARRUGO, Elías Alberto. Prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss induced noise in wood sector companies city Cartagena. Nova [online]. 2016, vol.14, n.25, pp.47-56. ISSN 1794-2470.

Objective. To find out prevalence of noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss in workers exposed to noise in four companies implicated in wood processing in the city of Cartagena. Method. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in four companies sawmills the timber sector of the city of Cartagena, dedicated to the transformation of the log wooden board and batten through cutting, brushing and chamfering wood. The study population was twenty machining area workers exposed to noise. A preliminary evaluation was done to know in detail the work environment and the circumstances under which workers are exposed to noise, noise characteristics and sources. Results. The prevalence of noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss was 20%. It was found in the study group that 5% with hearing loss among workers 41 to 45 years old and 15% in workers over 46 years old. As for the time of service in the various companies, workers from 1 to 30 years had 20% of sensorineural hearing loss induced by noise. In the measurement of noise exposure per job based on the different selected companies the equivalent continuous level of between 95.7 dB (A) to 101.9 dB (A) which exceeds the permissible limit values determined according to the US ACGIH criteria. The risk level is high in one of the companies as a medium risk was found in the other selected companies

Keywords : hearing loss; noise; sawmills.

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