Intermittent Exposure to Noise: Effects on Hearing

Most studies of the effects of noise upon hearing have dealt with continuous noise exposure. Previous reports on intermittent exposure to noise concluded that it causes less damage to hearing than does continuous exposure to noise of the same intensity. In this investigation, 12,000 workers were screened to find 295 subjects who met the strict criteria of the study. Most of the subjects were exposed to jackhammer noise at peak levels of 118 dBA. Intermittent exposure to intense noise results in very severe loss in high frequencies but relatively little or no hearing loss in the lower frequencies even after many years of exposure. This differs substantially from the effects of continuous exposure to noise of the same intensity. It remains to be determined whether this pattern of hearing results from intermittent exposure to all sorts of noise or only from the kinds of sources investigated in this study.