THE INTERACTION OF WHOLE BODY VIBRATION AND HOSIE ON THE COCHLEA

Abstract

Noise and whole body vibrations are recognized occupational Hazards of many workers, such as truck and bus drivers, jet aircraft pilots, heavy machine operators, and many others working on vibrating platforms (Nekhoreshev, 1990). Exposure to whole body vibration was associated with many psychophysical changes mostly related to musculoskeletal, vascular and digestive symptoms (Guber, 1976), (Milly & Spear, 1974) and (NIOSH, 1974).

Iskander et al. (1991) reported that vibration affected the inner hair cells more than the outer ones. However, Hamernik et al. (1989) demonstrated that in noise exposure the percentage of outer hair cells loss always exceeded the inner hair cell loss. The differential mode and site of action of either vibration or noise explains what has been observed in epidemiological studies of the combined effects of noise and vibration.

There was always a debate about the synergistic effect of whole body vibration and noise. Miyakita et al. (1987) observed statistically significantly higher levels of noise-induced hearing