Ahroon William A, Hill Melinda E, Goodes Dennis P
US Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory, 6901 Farrel Road, Fort Rucker, AL 36362-0577, USA.
Noise Health. 2011 Jan-Feb;13(50):76-83. doi: 10.4103/1463-1741.73992.
Damage-risk criteria (DRC) for noise exposures are designed to protect 95% of the exposed populations from hearing injuries caused by those noise exposures. The current DRC used by the US military follows OSHA guidelines for continuous noise. The current military DRC for impulse exposures follows the recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences--National Research Council Committee on Hearing, Bioacoustics, and Biomechanics (CHABA) and are contained in the current military standard, MIL-STD-1474D "Noise Limits." Suggesting that the MIL-STD for impulse exposure is too stringent, various individuals have proposed that the DRC for exposure to high-level impulses be relaxed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the current hearing status of US Army Soldiers, some of whom can be, by their military occupational specialties (MOS), reasonably expected to be routinely exposed to high-level impulses from weapon systems. The Defense Occupational and Environmental Health Readiness System--Hearing Conservation (DOEHRS-HC) was queried for the hearing status of enlisted Soldiers of 32 different MOSs. The results indicated that less than 95% of the Soldiers in the DOEHRS-HC database were classified as having normal hearing. In other words, the goal of the DRC used for limiting noise injuries (from continuous and impulse exposures) was not stringent enough to prevent hearing injuries in all but the most susceptible Soldiers. These results suggest that the current military noise DRC should not be relaxed.
噪声暴露的损伤风险标准（DRC）旨在保护95%的暴露人群免受此类噪声暴露导致的听力损伤。美国军方目前使用的DRC遵循职业安全与健康管理局（OSHA）关于连续噪声的指导方针。目前军方针对脉冲暴露的DRC遵循美国国家科学院——国家研究委员会听力、生物声学和生物力学委员会（CHABA）的建议，并包含在现行军事标准MIL-STD-1474D《噪声限值》中。由于有人认为针对脉冲暴露的MIL-STD过于严格，一些人提议放宽对高水平脉冲暴露的DRC。本研究的目的是评估美国陆军士兵的当前听力状况，其中一些士兵因其军事职业专长（MOS），可合理预期会经常暴露于武器系统的高水平脉冲之下。研究人员查询了国防职业与环境卫生准备系统——听力保护（DOEHRS-HC）中32种不同MOS的现役士兵的听力状况。结果表明，DOEHRS-HC数据库中不到95%的士兵被归类为听力正常。换句话说，用于限制噪声损伤（来自连续和脉冲暴露）的DRC目标不够严格，无法预防除最易受影响的士兵之外所有人的听力损伤。这些结果表明，当前的军事噪声DRC不应放宽。
