Davis Robert I, Qiu Wei, Heyer Nicholas J, Zhao Yiming, Qiuling Yang M S, Li Nan, Tao Liyuan, Zhu Liangliang, Zeng Lin, Yao Daohua
State University of New York, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, USA.
Noise Health. 2012 Nov-Dec;14(61):330-42. doi: 10.4103/1463-1741.104903.
This study examined: (1) the value of using the statistical metric, kurtosis [β(t)], along with an energy metric to determine the hazard to hearing from high level industrial noise environments, and (2) the accuracy of the International Standard Organization (ISO-1999:1990) model for median noise-induced permanent threshold shift (NIPTS) estimates with actual recent epidemiological data obtained on 240 highly screened workers exposed to high-level industrial noise in China. A cross-sectional approach was used in this study. Shift-long temporal waveforms of the noise that workers were exposed to for evaluation of noise exposures and audiometric threshold measures were obtained on all selected subjects. The subjects were exposed to only one occupational noise exposure without the use of hearing protection devices. The results suggest that: (1) the kurtosis metric is an important variable in determining the hazards to hearing posed by a high-level industrial noise environment for hearing conservation purposes, i.e., the kurtosis differentiated between the hazardous effects produced by Gaussian and non-Gaussian noise environments, (2) the ISO-1999 predictive model does not accurately estimate the degree of median NIPTS incurred to high level kurtosis industrial noise, and (3) the inherent large variability in NIPTS among subjects emphasize the need to develop and analyze a larger database of workers with well-documented exposures to better understand the effect of kurtosis on NIPTS incurred from high level industrial noise exposures. A better understanding of the role of the kurtosis metric may lead to its incorporation into a new generation of more predictive hearing risk assessment for occupational noise exposure.
（1）使用统计指标峰度[β(t)]以及能量指标来确定高噪声工业环境对听力危害程度的价值；（2）国际标准化组织（ISO - 1999:1990）关于噪声性永久性阈移（NIPTS）中位数估计模型，与最近在中国240名经过严格筛选、暴露于高噪声工业环境的工人实际流行病学数据之间的准确性。本研究采用横断面研究方法。对所有选定受试者获取了其暴露噪声的长时间时域波形，用于评估噪声暴露情况以及听力阈值测量。受试者仅暴露于一种职业噪声环境，且未使用听力保护装置。结果表明：（1）峰度指标是确定高噪声工业环境对听力危害程度的一个重要变量，用于听力保护目的，即峰度能够区分高斯噪声环境和非高斯噪声环境所产生的危害效应；（2）ISO - 1999预测模型不能准确估计高噪声工业环境下NIPTS中位数的程度；（3）受试者之间NIPTS固有的较大变异性强调了有必要开发和分析一个更大的、有充分记录暴露情况的工人数据库，以便更好地理解峰度对高噪声工业环境下NIPTS的影响。更好地理解峰度指标的作用可能会使其被纳入新一代更具预测性的职业噪声暴露听力风险评估中。
