Hearing Loss Research at NIOSH: Reviews of Research Programs of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

224 Pages·2006·0.95 MB·English

by  National Research Council, Committee to Review the NIOSH Hearing Loss Research Program

Hearing Loss Research at NIOSH
Reviews of Research Programs of the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Committee to Review the NIOSH Hearing Loss Research Program
Board on Health Sciences Policy
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the
National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of
Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the
committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for
appropriate balance.
This study was requested by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and supported by Contract Nos. 200-2000-00629 (Task Order
#0033) and 200-2005-10881 (Task Order #0004), between the National Academy of Sciences and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommenda-
tions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of
the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-10274-X
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-10274-2
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Copyright 2006 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Suggested Citation: Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2006. Hearing Loss Re-
search at NIOSH. Committee to Review the NIOSH Hearing Loss Research Program. Rpt. No. 1,
Reviews of Research Programs of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Wash-
ington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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COMMITTEE TO REVIEW THE NIOSH
HEARING LOSS RESEARCH PROGRAM
BERNARD D. GOLDSTEIN (Chair), Professor, Department of Environmental
and Occupational Health, Graduate School of Public Health, University of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
BETH A. COOPER, Manager, Acoustical Testing Laboratory, NASA John H.
Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Ohio
SUSAN E. COZZENS, Professor, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta
KAREN J. CRUICKSHANKS, Professor, Department of Population Health
Sciences and Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University
of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison
JUDY R. DUBNO, Professor, Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck
Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston
DENNIS A. GIARDINO, Acoustical Consultant, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
RENA H. GLASER, Manager of Medical Surveillance (Retired), 3M
Corporation, St. Paul, Minnesota
WILLIAM W. LANG, President, Noise Control Foundation, Poughkeepsie,
New York
LAURA C. LEVITON, Senior Program Officer for Research and Evaluation,
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, New Jersey
BRENDA L. LONSBURY-MARTIN, Research Professor, Division of
Otolaryngology, Department of Surgery, Loma Linda University School of
Medicine, Loma Linda, California
MICHAEL A. SILVERSTEIN, Clinical Professor, Department of Environmental
and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Community
Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle
Framework Committee Liaison
FRANKLIN E. MIRER, Director, Health and Safety Department, United
Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America
(UAW), Detroit, Michigan
Project Staff
LOIS JOELLENBECK, Senior Program Officer
JANE DURCH, Senior Program Officer
KRISTEN GILBERTSON, Research Assistant
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Independent Report Reviewers
his report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their
diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures
Tapproved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee.
The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical com-
ments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as
possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity,
evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft
manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Kathleen Campbell, Department of Surgery, Southern Illinois University School
of Medicine
William W. Clark, Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences,
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri
Christine Dixon-Ernst, Occupational Health Issues and EHS Information
Systems, Alcoa, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Joseph A. Main, Consultant, Mining Health and Safety, Spotsylvania, Virginia
Susan Megerson, Intercampus Program in Communicative Disorders, The
University of Kansas
David Roessner, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology
Kenneth Rosenman, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine,
Michigan State University
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viii I N D E P E N D E N T R E P O R T R E V I E W E R S
Scott D. Sommerfeldt, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young
University, Provo, Utah
Evelyn Talbott, Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive com-
ments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recom-
mendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The
review of this report was overseen by Paul D. Stolley, University of Maryland
School of Medicine, and David G. Hoel, Medical University of South Carolina.
Appointed by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, they were
responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was
carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review com-
ments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report
rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Preface
t has been a great pleasure to work with the group of consummate profession-
als who served on the Committee to Review the NIOSH Hearing Loss Re-
Isearch Program. The committee was fortunate that the Institute of Medicine’s
recognition of the unusual challenges posed by this report led to its assigning
particularly superb staff to work with us. The dedication, hard work, and patience
of Lois Joellenbeck and Jane Durch were essential to the completion of this task.
Kristen Gilbertson’s very able assistance deserves high praise as well.
We also want to thank the many individuals working for NIOSH (National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) with whom we interacted. Being
reviewed produces anxiety in any organization—and this is particularly true now
that accountability is so prominent in the pronouncements of the Office of Man-
agement and Budget and of Congress. The discomfort of NIOSH participants was
no doubt exacerbated by our committee’s own learning curve, which led to many
requests for different types of information, and by the lack of familiarity of NIOSH
professionals with this new review process, which was still evolving during their
preparation of materials for this committee. We hope that this has been a valuable
learning experience both for NIOSH and for future National Academies commit-
tees reviewing NIOSH research programs.
Our committee was presented with a number of challenges that went beyond
the usual assignment of analyzing and synthesizing information about a program
and then making recommendations. No previous committee had worked under
this new NIOSH review program, which may include up to 14 other similar re-
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