Hearing losses in wholetime firefighters occurring early in their careers

Abstract

Background: Most research on firefighter hearing loss has concentrated on effects over a substantial part of, or entire, firefighting career. Aims: To examine short-term changes in hearing in a group of local authority firefighters during their early careers. Methods: Results of pure-tone audiometry examinations on enlistment and assessment for initial issue of a large goods vehicle (LGV) driving licence were compared. Results: Altogether, 118 firefighters, all male, were examined for an LGV licence over a 2.5-year period to September 2005. Data were available for 89/99 right/left ears on enlistment and 99/100 for LGV. Mean time between examinations was 4.1 years (range 1.4-12.6 years). By the LGV examination, there was deterioration in 69/99 right and 77/100 left ears, with the hearing loss in 8% of right and 13% of left ears falling into the 'warning' or 'referral' categories (Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005) compared with 1% at enlistment. These differences reached statistical significance (P < 0.05 and < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions: Statistically significant hearing losses occur in some firefighters during the early stages of their careers. Further work needs to be done to establish if this continues, and steps taken to reduce the noise hazard at work. © The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved.