title: Hearing-impairment among workers in a surface gold mining company in Ghana.
abstract: A study to determine the impact of hazardous noise on workers was conducted in a surface gold mining company in Ghana. The procedure adopted included noise survey, case history, otoscopy and conventional pure-tone audiometry. Five main areas were surveyed for hazardous noise namely, Pit, Processing, Ana Laboratory, Bore-hole and Mess area. The results showed that all the above areas except the Mess area produced noise levels above 85 dBA. Again, a total of 252 workers were seen at the company, and out of this number 59(23%) had the classical noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) at 4 KHz. In addition, NIHL increased as a function of age and duration of exposure. It is also noted that out of 81 workers with a preemployment history of noise exposure, 41(51%) had NIHL. NIHL also varied with regard to job location. 14(6%) of the workers had hearing loss greater than 25 dB at the speech frequencies. Thus, factors not under the control of the company may affect the hearing of an employee.
authors.affiliation: Department of Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat, School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi Ghana. amedofugk@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Geoffrey K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Amedofu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001299:Audiometry; D005869:Ghana / Q000453:epidemiology; D006046:Gold; D006306:Health Surveys; D006317:Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008906:Mining; D009623:Noise, Occupational / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D006046:Gold