Hearing loss with frequent diving (deaf divers).
An audiometric survey was performed on a group of professional abalone divers, all of whom had experienced a great deal of exposure to dysbaric conditions. The results of this survey revealed that, even allowing for the very liberal requirements of the Australian standards for divers, over 60% had an unacceptable sensorineural, high frequency deafness. In half of these cases it was unilateral, and half bilateral. Making allowance for age, over 70% had evidence of hearing loss to a degree considered by the National Acoustic Laboratories to be compensatable.
D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D003638:Deafness / Q000209:etiology*; D004242:Diving / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006316:Hearing Loss, High-Frequency / Q000209:etiology; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000209:etiology