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OCCUPATIONAL MORBIDITY DUE TO NOISE EXPOSURE IN ROMANIA

OCCUPATIONAL MORBIDITY DUE TO NOISE EXPOSURE IN ROMANIA. Adriana Todea, Aurelia Ferencz Occupational Health Department-Institute of Public Health, Romania Event: European Week 2005. STOP THAT NOISE!.

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OCCUPATIONAL MORBIDITY DUE TO NOISE EXPOSURE IN ROMANIA

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  1. OCCUPATIONAL MORBIDITY DUE TO NOISE EXPOSURE IN ROMANIA Adriana Todea, Aurelia Ferencz Occupational Health Department-Institute of Public Health, Romania Event: European Week 2005

  2. STOP THAT NOISE! Under this slogan European occupational and safetyweek has taken place during October 20-26th 2005 http://osha.eu.int

  3. HISTORY The adverse effects of noise exposure upon hearing are well known and mentioned as back as 1731, in workers in copper and copper alloys mines.

  4. EU Directive 2003/10/EC • contains minimum requirements to encourage improvements, especially in working environment, in order to guarantee a better level of occupational health and safety of the workers.

  5. EU Directive 2003/10/EC • The requirements are applicable to activities during which the workers are or have a risk to be exposed, through the nature of their activity, to noise induced risks.

  6. EU Directive 2003/10/EC Limit Value of noise exposure: LEX,8h = 87 dB(A)

  7. EU Directive 2003/10/EC • The level of noise exposure can be efficiently reduced through preventive measures regarding the design of work stations and work places, selecting the equipments, procedures in order to give the priority to reducing risk at source. • Collective protection measures have priority compared to individual protective measures.

  8. EU Directive 2003/10/EC – health surveillance • Regarding health surveillance, the EU Directive specifies the obligation to adequate surveillance of workers’ health when risk evaluation show a risk for health. • Specified requirements regarding medical surveillance must be implemented according to national laws and practices.

  9. ROMANIAN LEGISLATION General Labor Protection Norms/2002 (Title VI, Chapter VII, Noise) contain mentions regarding: • measurement • threshold limit values • protective measures for protection of employees.

  10. ROMANIAN LEGISLATION General Labor Protection Norms/2002Annex no 2 contains: Table of occupational diseases that must be reported (position 28: hearing loss due to exposure to noise exceeding the TLV and ototoxic substances).

  11. ROMANIAN LEGISLATION General Labor Protection Norms/2002 Annex no 3 contains the list of work-related diseases induced by noise exposure: • high blood pressure • digestive diseases • nevrosis and other neurological-mental diseases.

  12. ROMANIAN LEGISLATION General Labor Protection Norms/2002 Annex no.7 File 109 -the Noise

  13. Medical examination prior to hiring : general clinical examination nose-ear-throat examination audiogram (tonal liminal audiometry) c) The diseases impeding the hiring: chronic diseases of the medium and inner ear psychopathies, manifested nevrosis medium, severe high blood pressure with risk factors, stage II and III. Periodical medical examination : –        general clinical examination – annually –        audiogram (tonal liminal audiometry) – at 3 months from hiring and than annually –        nose-ear-throat examination, depending on the results of the audiogram –        psychological examination every 3 years. ROMANIAN LEGISLATION File 109 -the Noise

  14. HEARING LOSS • Symptoms occur in exposure to noise exceeding 87 dB(A) daily personal exposure. The first signs consists in difficulties in hearing high pitch sounds, followed by difficulties in hearing low level sounds. • The impairment is bilateral and irreversible

  15. HEARING LOSS • The hearing loss can be high in short exposures to impulsive noise (gunfire), resulting in hearing loss and continuous tinnitus. • In these circumstances, the impulsive noise can cause tympanum rupture, which is painful and reversible.

  16. HEARING LOSS • Tinnitusul can sometimes be the first sign of hearing loss due to noise exposure.

  17. NOISE AND CHEMICAL AGENTS EXPOSURE • The exposure to toxic substances such as toluene, styrene, carbon disulphide, lead, mercury, arsenic, can damage the hearing, these substances being ototoxic. • The combined exposure to noise and ototoxic substances results in a high risk of hearing loss, greater than each risk alone.

  18. NOISE AND PREGNANT WORKERS EXPOSURE • The exposure to noise of pregnant women can induce damages of the fetus (subsequent hearing impairment and other effects due to low frequence exposure).

  19. NOISE EXPOSURE AND WORK ACCIDENTS Noise increases the risk of work accidents: • – interference with speech communication and with the perception of warning signals • – masking the warning sounds (vehicles); • – annoyance and increasing risk of error.

  20. NOISE INDUCED HEARING LOSS - It’s a permanent occupational loss of the hearing threshold (definitive hearing loss) at the frequence of 4096 Hz, with more than 30 dB, after correction for presbycusis, perceptive, bilateral and symmetric, without damaging the conversational frequencies.

  21. OCCUPATIONAL DEAFNESS • It’s the permanent occupational loss of the hearing threshold (definitive hearing loss), at conversational frequencies, with more than 25 dB (arithmetic mean of values on 500-1000-2001 Hz), after correction for presbycusis, perceptive, bilateral and symmetric.

  22. ROMANIAN OCCUPATIONAL MORBIDITY (1) • The number of new cases of noise induced occupational diseases had a constant increase during the last 10 years.

  23. ROMANIAN OCCUPATIONAL MORBIDITY (2)

  24. ROMANIAN OCCUPATIONAL MORBIDITY (3)

  25. ROMANIAN OCCUPATIONAL MORBIDITY (4) • In 2004, occupational hearing loss occurred after a mean of 21.48 years of exposure and occupational deafness after 23.27 years of exposure.

  26. District No. of cases Mean years of exposure Alba 39 16,5±7,1 Braila 30 23,3±5,6 Harghita 24 21,8±7,3 Cluj 23 26 ±8,9 ROMANIAN OCCUPATIONAL MORBIDITY (5)

  27. CONCLUSIONS (1) The quality of workers’ life suffering from irreversible hearing loss due to occupational noise exposure over the TLV is diminished and those affected by it are “condemned” to a communication impaired life.

  28. CONCLUSIONS (2) The only treatment for hearing loss is PREVENTION through technical-administrative measures of reducing noise.

  29. CONCLUSIONS (3) The health and safety of noise exposed worker is nowadays a priority. STOP THAT NOISE!

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