User:Ellyn Kuehne/sandbox

Rough Draft For Article Revision:

In continuation off of the Occupational Hearing Loss section:

Any workplace that exposes workers to excessive sound levels is required to ensure that the hearing function of their workers is adequately protected. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provide laws and regulations clarified by the United States department of labor. Generated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, OSHA was created with the mission to assure all working conditions are safe and healthy. All employers must follow this hearing amendment, including private sector employers, and excluding those who are self-employed, family farm workers, and government workers. Separate laws and regulations are enacted for specialized working environments. These include the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which provide specific regulation for miners and railroad workers.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) generated a criteria document consisting of a “best practice guide” recommended by OSHA to all employers. This document is recommended to be followed, but is not required as OSHA laws and regulation are. The regulations provided by NIOSH are much more conservative, and it provides scientific basis for occupational safety and health standards. For example, the permissible exposure limit for OSHA is >90 dBA, while NIOSH is >85 dBA. They recommend the implementation or promotion of these conservative standards alongside the standards of the designated administration (OSHA, MSHA, or FRA) of the employer.

OSHA, NIOSH, MSHA, and FRA were all created in response to an increase in noise induced hearing loss resulting from hazardous sound levels in industrial work environments. Noise can cause detrimental effects to the outer, middle, and inner ear, as well as the auditory nerve and central auditory system. In the outer ear, with high noise exposure the eardrum can rupture and bleed. In the middle ear, dislocation of the bones that reside in the middle ear (the ossicles) can occur. These problems occur when exposed to extremely high sound levels. In the inner ear, low, middle, and high sound levels can all cause damage to structures residing in the cochlea. This damage can cause what is called a 'noise notch' and hearing loss is evident at 3000 - 6000 Hz frequencies.

WHAT TO DO NEXT=

A. Continue on with issues occurring in the ear -->

- describe hair cell damage in cochlea?

- auditory nerve and central system

B. Describe the configuration of a noise induced hearing loss -->

- frequencies effected, etc.Peer Review Edits:
 * 1) "large corporation" maybe give some examples of what these corporations might be
 * 2) Maybe hyperlink some of the vocabulary, for example,NIOSH, OSHA, FRA, and MSHA.
 * 3) On what to do next I agree with the sections that you have in place, but maybe you could add a short section at the very end about HPD's in order to provide a way to avoid noise induced hearing loss.  It doesn't need to be real specific about the different types.  Just a short section on what people can do to avoid NIHL.
 * 4) I think the start you have right now is really good!