Determination of noise induced hearing loss in mining: an application of hierarchical loglinear modelling |
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Authors: | Mustafa Onder Seyhan Onder Atakan Mutlu |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, 600 West 168th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10032, USA |
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Abstract: | The levels of noise arise from mining industry seem to be higher when compared to other industries. For this reason, noise
exposure and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) are prevalent in mining. Assessment of noise emission levels that arise from
various mining operations is required to prevent and minimize the NIHL. Because the studies for preventing occupational hearing
loss among miners are inadequate, a quarry and stone crushing-screening plant was selected to generate site-specific data.
The noise levels of the environments in which workers work were measured and also a hearing test centre applied hearing tests
to the workers. According to the hearing test results, it was determined that the part of workers have hearing loss. The main
factors affecting the NIHL were assumed as experience, noise level, miners’ age and occupation, and by taking into account
the sub factors of the main factors, multi way contingency tables were prepared. Then hierarchical loglinear analysis method
was implemented to categorized data; thus, the probabilities might effect NIHL was investigated. At the end of this study,
it was found that the most risky occupation group was the drivers, and additionally, these workers were mostly exposed to
70–79 dB(A) noise level. When the important interactions are evaluated, it is determined that 4–11 years experienced crusher
workers have high probability of NIHL because of high exposure to 90–99 dB(A) noise level. Moreover, the most important interactions
which may affect the NIHL were identified and the precautions to reduce hearing loss were presented. |
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