Abstract            Volume:4  Issue-9  Year-2016         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) is caused by sustained and repeated exposure to excessive sound levels. Exposure to noise (>85 dB A) causes temporary or permanent hearing loss. The major industries release excessive noise and exposing workers to hazardous levels of noise are textile, printing, mining and sawmill is one of them. Aims of the present study are to assess the noise level in the sawmill sectors and to assess the prevalence of hearing loss among the sawmill workers. The present study was done among 84 male sawmill workers in West Bengal. The exclusion criteria were the subjects with any injury/ infection in ear, taking medicine, early hearing loss, etc. The modified Noise Questionnaire was administered. Then sound level was measured and pure tones Audiometry for air conduction (AC) for the both ears were conducted by using audiometer. The average sound level of the sawmill sector in the study area was above the acceptable value, i.e. 92.1-116.3 dB (A). Among the study population for 33.33 % of them have hearing defect only in left ear, and for about 38.89 % they had a hearing defect only in right ear and for 16.66% of them they had a combined hearing defect. These values are significantly greater than the referent personnel. The workers working in sawmill are exposed a highly noisy environment and they are having highly threat of NIHL.

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