Noise and Hearing Loss in the Navy

Noise and Hearing Loss in the Navy Student's Name Institutional Affiliation Noise and Hearing Loss in the Navy Like other armed forces units, the Navy is in the position of its operations to increasingly become noisy than normal. This has lead many scholars to research the noise-induced hearing loss, and the noise reduction and hearing conservation. Since the major noise problems in the civil life are not different from those in the naval operations, the major interest is how the Royal Navy and Royal Marines tackle this problem. Permanent hearing loss that is being caused due to the exposure to high intensity noise areas is becoming a major problem in the naval operations. It has been reported that there is an increasing number of individuals who are filing for compensation claims for noise-induced hearing loss. Prior to provide a report on the matter, no reliable information is existing concerning the prevalence of hearing loss in the naval operations. Although the experience of clinicians suggest that the problem is widespread, it is impossible to document this observation. However, the noise-induced hearing loss can be prevented by limited exposure to noise, once one has suffered the injury it is irreversible. In 2004 the Veterans Administration (VA) spent millions of dollars ($108) in compensating former Navy officers who had suffered hearing loss while on duty. This was an increase of $65 million from the money that VA had spent in 1999 (Irgens-Hansen et al., 2015). The main purpose of this report is to demonstrate how hearing loss is related to the time of spent by the officers in noise ships while on operation to help in reducing the problem and the costs spent. The Navy officers are posted in different stations either afloat or offshore. These work stations have high intensity of noise caused by the engines of the ships and firearms while others who work in machineries suffer the most. If these areas with high intensity of noise are identified, can help in developing prevention programs and be implemented. Some of the measures that can be taken include closer monitoring of the officers, focused noise control design in the ships and rotational routines of the officers to prevent prolonged exposure to the noise. These measures can prevent and reduce the noise-induced hearing damage to the Navy personnel and save millions of dollars from being spent in compensating the officers. In order to identify the areas which have high intensity of noise, a study of each station was done. The turbo jet engines were found to be having the highest intensity of noise. The flight deck of an aircraft carrier has a lot of powerful jets and the continuous flying of operations and technology of making the aircraft catapult provides the highest noise. However, to the contrary of what is expected, permanent noise-induced hearing loss due to jet noise is not common despite the usual 8 hours of exposure. Due to this fact, a coincidental firearm noise exposure in the flight decks in the U.S Navy was assessed and found to be the major noise hazard in the jets. However, other studies were done and revealed that the frequency of hearing loss is due to jet noise i...