Services Sector Workers Suffer Surprising Level of Hearing Loss

September 7, 2020 Roberta Garthwait

New research from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) estimates that a large number of noise-exposed workers within the Services industry sector, the largest sector in U.S. industry, have an elevated risk of hearing loss. The new study was recently published in the International Journal of Audiology.

Researchers examined audiograms for 1.9 million noise-exposed workers across all industries, including audiograms for 158,436 workers in the Services sector. The main findings included:

• The prevalence of hearing loss within the Services sector was 17%, very close to the prevalence of all industries combined (16%). However, many sub-sectors greatly exceeded the overall prevalence by large percentages (10-33% higher), and many had high risks for hearing loss.
• Workers in Administration of Urban Planning and Community and Rural Development had the highest prevalence (50%), and workers in Solid Waste Combustors and Incinerators had more than double the risk, the highest of any sub-sector.
• Some sub-sectors traditionally viewed as “low-risk” also had higher than expected prevalences and/ or risks, such as professional and technical services and schools. For example, Custom Computer Programming Services and Elementary and Secondary Schools had prevalences of 35% and 26%, respectively.