Abstract
Experience in hearing loss at Utah State Prison in noise-hazard and non-noise-hazard areas suggested a matched-pair study of these two groups. The study of noise induced hearing loss and its relation to age has become more and more of scientific and economic interest in the past few years. Since the creation of OSHA and the enforcement of its standards, great strides have been undertaken at USP to protect the worker in noise areas, with both noise abatement and hearing protection. The need became apparent for a measurement of this progress and a comparison of hearing loss between the two worker groups. A retrospective chart study was designed utilizing one hundred pairs of workers matched for age, sex and initial hearing loss. The results suggest no significant difference between the two groups during one year of exposure.