Textile Science and Engineering (한국섬유공학회지)

The Korean Fiber Society (한국섬유공학회)
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Effects of Exposure to Organic Solvents and Noise on the Hearing Abilities of Shoe-Manufacturing Workers

신발 제조업체 종사자의 유기용제 폭로와 소음이 청력에 미치는 영향

  • Yoon, Hae-Gyung (Division of Basic Science, Dong-Eui University) ;
  • Lee, Gil-hyun (Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, Kyungwoon University) ;
  • Hyun, Kyung-Yae (Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, Dong-Eui University)
  • 윤혜경 (동의대학교 기초과학교양학부) ;
  • 이길현 (경운대학교 임상병리학과) ;
  • 현경예 (동의대학교 임상병리학과)
  • Received : 2017.10.30
  • Accepted : 2017.12.02
  • Published : 2017.12.31
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Abstract

In this study, pure tone and speech hearing tests were conducted on 60 participants working in shoe-manufacturing factories in Busan in order to examine the effects of exposure to mixed organic solvents and noise on their hearing abilities. The control group was selected from the general public. The shoe-manufacturing workers and the participants selected from the general public represented the exposed and unexposed group, respectively. We observed statistically significant differences in the uncomfortable levels and speech recognition threshold levels between the participants of the exposed and unexposed groups. These observations indicate that the discomfort index increases significantly due to continuous exposure to noise and mixed organic solvents. Furthermore, it was observed that exposure to noise and organic solvents had the same effect on the hearing abilities of the left and right ears. The results of this study were similar to those of earlier studies that showed that hearing loss caused by noise occurs mostly in the high frequency range (3,000-6,000 Hz), and changes most significantly at 4,000 Hz. Categorizing the participants into grades of hearing loss revealed that 13.3% of the participants of the exposed group exhibited a certain level of hearing loss. This was higher by approximately 8% than that observed in the unexposed group (5%), which can be attributed to long-term exposure of the exposed group to mixed organic solvents and noise.

Keywords

References

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