Audiological Findings among Workers from Brazilian Food Industry Exposed to Continuous and Impulsive Noise

Studies show that exposure to noise is present in most of the work processes, which may cause hearing damage to workers. However, few studies are directed to do research on combined exposure, continuous noise and impulsive noise, especially when the impact noise exceeds the threshold limit value and the maximum assessment level of sound level meters. This exposure occurs in approximately 900 industries in the food sector, in general small businesses in Brazil, causing hearing loss of cochlear origin in operators of popcorn expansion machines, called "cannons" based on the noise they generate. The noise levels found in one of the factories were TWA = 92.6 dB (A) for 08 hours with levels above 160 dB (linear).