HEARING-LOSS AND MOTORCYCLISTS

Motorcyclists are known to be exposed to excessive wind noise levels w hen riding. The potential adverse effects of this exposure on their he aring was investigated. Temporary threshold shift (TTS) was assessed b y asking 18 riders to undertake a standard test run of one hour at a s teady 80 mph, and performing audiometry before and immediately afterwa rds. Permanent threshold shift (PTS) was assessed by performing pure-t one audiograms on a highly screened group of 246 motorcyclists and com paring their hearing thresholds with those of an appropriate control g roup obtained from the MRC National Study of Hearing. Significant TTS was found at 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2 kHz. The greatest TTS occurred at 1 kH z, with a mean hearing loss of 10.3 dB. The hearing thresholds of the motorcyclists were significantly worse than the controls at 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2 kHz, and was most marked at 0.5 and 1 kHz where their hearing loss (PTS) was, respectively, 3.7 and 3.6 dB greater than expected. T hese findings demonstrate evidence of both temporary and permanent hea ring loss from motorcycling and present a strong argument for the need for some form of remedial action.