Certain Chemicals May Cause Hearing Loss (occupational hearing loss)

Certain Chemicals May Cause Hearing Loss (occupational hearing loss)

Dr. T

At one point or another, we’ve been exposed to sounds that harm our ears. It can happen at a concert, a sporting event or even walking by a cacophonous construction site. You may have even felt physical pain in your ears, alerting you that the sound environment you are in is dangerous. When noise-exposure is experienced at great volumes or even at slightly elevated volumes for long periods of time, hearing loss can happen.

It’s a circumstance many workers experience on the job. People in the manufacturing, entertainment and military industries all have frequent examples of excessive noise exposure. Thankfully, there are organizations at the federal level that monitor and intervene in such instances. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) enforces guidelines to keep workers safe. 

However, there are other workplace causes of hearing loss beyond those we can hear and feel. Chemical agents used in commonplace processes are also responsible for damage to our hearing health.

Dangerous chemicals are on OSHA’s radar

In a recent bulletin produced by OSHA, the agency warns of toxic chemicals that can lead to future hearing loss. These chemicals become hearing health hazards when absorbed through the skin, breathed, or swallowed. 

We call chemicals that are toxic to hearing health ‘ototoxics’ as signified by the ‘oto’ prefix of Greek origin, referencing that which pertains to the ear.

Where these chemicals are found

In most cases, these ototoxic substances are present in drugs, solvents, and insecticides. In their report, OSHA designates five categories of ototoxics: pharmaceuticals, solvents, asphyxiants (like cigarette smoke and carbon monoxide), nitriles, and metals and compounds. 

You are more likely to be at risk of ototoxic chemical exposure if you work in the agricultural, construction, mining or utility sectors. These types of chemicals are also present in certain arms of the manufacturing industry, like metal workers, textiles and apparel, painters and shipbuilding. 

The damage caused by ototoxics

The bulletin from OSHA signaled specific dangers to hearing health that these chemicals can cause. They warn of the increased rate of speech discrimination dysfunction, which impacts a person’s ability to understand or recognize speech in varying listening environments. This is perilous in the workplace because employees are not able to discern co-worker’s voices from competing background noise or even recognize warning signals that might alert them to impending danger.

Noise heaps on the harm

As is evident, higher rates of exposure increases the risk of future hearing damage.. It’s also important to limit the time of duration and the intensity of the exposure. If you must work with these chemicals to do your job, your employer should be using interventions to protect all workers, including protective gear and proper ventilation in the workplace. 

What’s of particular interest is that the likelihood of their negative effects grows when employees are exposed to loud noises. In these cases, employers can also use noise protection like noise-canceling headphones, sound barriers or frequent breaks to alleviate the compounding damage that excessive noise presents. 

What’s even more troubling in cases of chemical exposure is that most standard hearing tests are unable to reveal whether hearing health damage is the result of chemicals or from excessive noise itself. Therefore, much of our data and research on the topic is staggeringly limited. 

How to confront dangerous chemicals
For employers, it’s important that they do a meticulous inventory of which chemicals they use and their possibly hazardous effect on a worker’s hearing health. When possible, the chemicals should be replaced by less dangerous equivalents. And workplaces are responsible for putting safe and effective interventions in place when swapping out chemicals proves impossible. 

For employees, advocating for your hearing health might look like being aware of the chemicals used in your work and being informed on their possible side effects. If you believe that your employer is putting you and your co-workers at risk, you can file a report with OSHA that alerts the agency to the noncompliance. 

Schedule a hearing consultation

If you believe that your hearing health has declined due to exposure to excessive noise or dangerous chemicals in the workplace, schedule a hearing consultation today. Our team of hearing experts will guide you through a simple hearing test. From there, we’ll consult with you on the results of your exam and determine the best possible path forward.