Taxini Carla Linhares, Guida Heraldo Lorena
Speech Therapist. Masters Student in Human Communication Disorders at the State University of São Paulo -UNESP- Marília/SP - Brazil.
Phd in Biological Sciences- UNESP Campus of the State University of São Paulo -UNESP- Botucatu/SP- Brazil. Professor at the Speech Therapy Department of the Faculty of Philosophy and Science at the State University of São Paulo - UNESP-Marília/SP - Brazil.
Int Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2013 Jan;17(1):80-4. doi: 10.7162/S1809-97772013000100014.
To review the literature about the effects of environmental noise on the hearing ability of firefighters.
The PubMed and Scielo databases were searched and studies from 2002 to 2012 that included the keywords firefighters, noise, and hearing loss were identified. Initially, 24 studies were selected, but only 10 met the inclusion criteria of investigating the effects of occupational noise on firefighters.
Only 2 (20%) studies quantified levels of sound pressure and performed audiological tests to identify associations with noise intensity and 3 (30%) questionnaire-based studies reported that these professionals are more susceptible to hearing loss. Four (50%) studies found that noise exposure damages the auditory system in this population.
These findings indicate that there is a necessity for preventive measures to be adopted by this population since it is considered to be at risk.
In recent years, there have been few studies of firefighters' exposure to occupational noise, but our findings show the importance of new studies that include proper means of quantifying their exposure to noise in different work environments, in order to identify possible adverse conditions as well as to aid in the diagnosis of hearing loss.
回顾关于环境噪声对消防员听力影响的文献。
检索了PubMed和Scielo数据库，确定了2002年至2012年期间包含关键词“消防员”“噪声”和“听力损失”的研究。最初选择了24项研究，但只有10项符合调查职业噪声对消防员影响的纳入标准。
只有2项（20%）研究对声压水平进行了量化，并进行了听力测试以确定与噪声强度的关联，3项（30%）基于问卷的研究报告称这些专业人员更容易出现听力损失。4项（50%）研究发现噪声暴露会损害该人群的听觉系统。
这些发现表明，由于该人群被认为处于风险之中，因此有必要采取预防措施。
近年来，关于消防员职业噪声暴露的研究较少，但我们的研究结果表明，新的研究很重要，这些研究应包括在不同工作环境中量化其噪声暴露的适当方法，以便识别可能的不利状况并有助于听力损失的诊断。
