Drivers window often cracked?

 

While working , yes. Myself and a few other left ear impaired guys asked the doctors about that and they said no way wind noise would cause hearing loss but the amount I'm losing they blame on other noise from the job.

 

Doctors, well, I’ve got a few stories.

I get the other ear profession problems, that’s common. Also part of our company EHS procedures were disecting all components of every process and we had some very expensive sound analyzing equipment, Rion SA-77. We ended up requiring ear protection every time anyone used an air impact (I still do) or the tire changer and I had to work on reducing the sound level of the air compressor.

So why my ears up on the comment .....

We did vehicle testing for everything up to Class 8, so CDL was part of the job grades and all of us had them except for my secretary. But I had in the requirements all employees had to go for the CDL medical exams as both a balanced job requirement and since all of us drove company vehicles. I also included hearing tests as part of pre-employment.

I used a regional med source similar to Atlanticare and they used booth hearing tests. Every test driver had diminished left ear, several secretary’s did not. Part of the vehicle testing procedure was to have the windows slightly down at least so you could subjectively characterize and rate (1 to 10) the loudness of brake noise. It’s an industry wide procedure.

I went through the discussion of an occupational cause with several hearing techs and got no where. I asked the doc and got no traction. But their statements in an occupational screening environment can have legal implications to what they say.

The ENT I personally have has acknowledged that an open window could have implications due to the repeated pressure changes that occur constantly. The air going past the window is not constant, and does have slight changes in pressure which will flex the eardrum. So survey says ........

 

I didn't say I agreed with the Drs or test facility. I certainly do believe there are effects from the window being open. Their argument is the loss is not coming from "noise" or decibels from the open window. Your argument, same as mine I think, is noise is pressure going through the fluid of air hitting the components of the ear. Well a cracked window is also pressure changes contacting the ear, right? So why can't it cause hearing loss? I say it does.
But in my case it doesn't matter since they documented another source, which ironically holds its weight in the claim because I've been tested since 1997 & my loss did not start until 2007 when I transferred to this (noisier at times) profession I now hold.


Sorry OP. We should move this conversation over to the Junk thread.

 

We’re in agreement. The second source carries the weight, and is common.

 

It's all good guys . I pretty much have an idea of what I need.

 

Plus, you don’t need FORSCAN to turn off the seatbelt chime