Ototoxic agents and noise exposure[Agents ototoxiques et exposition au bruit]

The limit for a working day noise exposure, Lex,d=85dB(A), has been established for healthy and unprotected people whose inner ear is not particularly sensitive to noise. However, the pertinence of such a value is still questionable when workers are simultaneously exposed to noise and other ototoxic agents, such as antibiotics, diuretics, aspirin, or aromatic solvents for instance. The presence of ototoxic agents might weaken the inner ear, so that the value of the limit recommended for healthy people could jeopardize the audition of workers exposed simultaneously to noise and to another ototoxic agent. The risks encountered by workers exposed to noise associated with an ototoxic agent, the role played by the preventor and his prevention policy will be addressed throughout this review of the literature. More specifically, the pertinence of the noise exposure limit or the threshold limit value of solvents, the work of convalescent people and their inner ear vulnerability, the consequences of a temporary deafness in workplace, will be the main themes debated in the present article.