Noise at Work and Home Stats & Facts

FACTS

  1. Adults with hearing loss are more likely to have lower education, lower income, and be unemployment or underemployment, compared with their typical-hearing peers.
  2. Individuals with hearing loss also experience greater difficulties in employment transition and career development, compared with those with typical hearing.
  3. Employees exposed to hazardous levels of noise must be provided hearing protection and replacements at no cost. The employer is required to provide multiple suitable options of hearing protectors including one type of earplug and one type of earmuff.
  4. Each year, about 22 million external U.S. workers are exposed to hazardous noise levels at work. Over 30 million external U.S. workers are exposed to chemicals, some of which are harmful to the ear (ototoxic) and hazardous to hearing.

STATS

  • NIOSH estimates that 30 million U.S. workers are exposed to noise levels high enough to cause irreversible hearing loss.
  • According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 20,000 workplace hearing loss cases occur annually, many resulting in permanent hearing loss.
  • An estimated 24% of hearing loss in the United States has been attributed to workplace exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • Workers in 75.0 percent of civilian jobs were exposed to moderate noise levels at work in 2016. Another 13.3 percent were exposed to loud noise levels and 0.7 percent to very loud levels.
  • Workers in construction and extraction occupations were mostly exposed to loud work (49.6 percent of jobs) or very loud work (7.9 percent).
  • More than 7 in 10 carpenters and operating engineers and other construction equipment operators were exposed to loud work environments in 2016.
  • In food preparation and serving related occupations, 16.5 percent of jobs were exposed to loud work environments, and 82.1 percent were exposed to moderate noise during a typical work day.
  • Bartending jobs were about evenly split between workers exposed to a loud work environment (44.7 percent) or a moderate noise environment (46.7 percent) in 2016.