Going to a place of employment — a rewarding and fulfilling experience for many people – can carry with it immense positive benefits from helping others, from settling lawsuits to fixing machines that transport necessary materials. But unfortunately some occupations have an inherent danger in regards to your health—your hearing health that is. Contributing to a growing number of workplace injuries that are being suffered is hearing loss, which comes from performing jobs in a noisy environment consistently. We’ll take a look at the noisiest jobs around so you can realize how dangerous they really are and what risk the workers take each day just to go to work.
Farming
Yes, agriculture is indeed one of the most rewarding jobs in the entire world. Not only do farmers get to feed people, they also sell important products grown with their own hands. On the flip side, farming also requires frequent use of machines that typically exceed the 85 decibels necessary to incur hearing loss.
General Construction
Between the insistent rapping of a hammer on a roof or the constant rush of air as a result of nail guns, construction workers are exposed to a lot of acute noise trauma every day, whether working within a house or outside on a construction site. As such, most of them prefer to wear ear plugs or noise dampening headphones.
Mining
Mining is an important occupation because it give us access to raw materials and fuel we need to tackle other jobs. But that being said, the roar of heavy equipment within a very small space affects the workers’ hearing exponentially. As a result, many miners in this line of work end up having to deal with permanent hearing loss the rest of their lives.
Working in a Club
You may not remember that those who work in nightclubs are not having as much fun as the patrons, what with the people screaming and the pulse-pumping music. That may be enjoyable on weekends for you, but individuals working in this environment surely end up with hearing loss. Hearing health is compounded for DJs, security, bartenders and servers.
Military
With some of the noisiest work environments possible, the military encompasses a variety of elements that span from construction to the sounds of high explosives. This presents several ways in which soldiers and other employees can suffer hearing loss while in the armed forces. Frequent weapons training and exposure to heavy machines such as tanks makes it no wonder returning veterans suffer from acoustic trauma, a serious form of hearing impairment.
Ground Workers at Airports
Perhaps the noisiest job in the world is that of the ground worker at an airport. Regularly exposed to the sounds of full-sized jets taking off from the runway, these workers are subjected to almost double the amount of decibels that can result in hearing loss. The potential for hearing loss is even more so when working within commercial and military plane services.