{"id":2654,"date":"2021-03-03T17:05:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T17:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/noticia\/world-hearing-day-the-impact-of-noise-in-the-workplace\/"},"modified":"2021-03-03T17:05:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T17:05:06","slug":"world-hearing-day-the-impact-of-noise-in-the-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/noticia\/world-hearing-day-the-impact-of-noise-in-the-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"World Hearing Day: the impact of noise in the workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, Wednesday March 3rd, is World Hearing Day.
\nSEPRI Medicina no Trabalho marked the day with awareness campaigns and hearing screenings for its clients where noise in the workplace is a constant.
\nWorkers can be exposed to high levels of noise in workplaces as varied as the construction and textile industries.
\nBut what are the causes of hearing loss?
\nHow can we classify hearing loss from mild to profound?
\nAnd which sounds are most damaging to the hearing system? <\/p>\n

What is sound, anyway?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Sound is the result of molecules vibrating from one  side to the other, creating a sound wave.
\nThese sound waves are picked up and conducted by our hearing system, which transforms them into nerve impulses that are then interpreted by our central nervous system.
\nHearing is the first of the five senses to be fully developed at birth.
\nAt around 16 weeks of gestation, the fetus is already  able to receive stimuli from  the mother’s body and the external environment. <\/p>\n

What are the causes of hearing loss?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The causes of hearing loss are not limited to those listed below, but we have highlighted the most common ones:<\/p>\n

Age: <\/strong>ageing is the most common and natural cause;<\/p>\n

Noise: <\/strong>in prolonged or acute exposure;<\/p>\n

Genetic factors: <\/strong>family history can be a direct cause  ;<\/p>\n

 Infections: <\/strong>various viruses and bacteria can damage the hearing system, not only in childhood otitis but also in adulthood;<\/p>\n

Ototoxic agents: <\/strong>certain drugs, medicines, alcohol and tobacco  can affect the various components of the hearing system.<\/p>\n

How is hearing loss classified?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

MILD (20 TO 40 dB) – Inability to hear soft everyday sounds.<\/p>\n

MODERATE (41 TO 70 dB) – Inability to understand a conversation  in a group of people.<\/p>\n

SEVERE (71 TO 90 dB) – Inability to hear the sound of instruments,  car noise.<\/p>\n

PROFOUND (> 91 dB) – Severe dizziness to the point of not hearing the turbine  of an airplane.<\/p>\n

What are the most damaging sounds for the hearing system?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Decibels is the unit used to measure sound.
\nTo give you an idea, 20 decibels is the threshold of human hearing.
\nAt 85 decibels, we enter the damage threshold and at 135 decibels, we enter the pain threshold.
\nThe sound of a heavy vehicle is around 90 decibels, while a jackhammer registers around 100 decibels.
\nThe sound in a residential area is around 50 decibels. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Workers can be exposed to high levels of noise in workplaces as varied as the construction and textile industries.
\nBut what are the causes of hearing loss?
\nHow can we classify hearing loss from mild to profound?
\nAnd which sounds are most damaging to the hearing system? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sepri.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}