Alterações auditivas em trabalhadores expostos a mercúrio

PURPOSE: to identify possible peripheral and central auditory disorders in workers of a recycling fluorescent light bulbs industry that were exposed to elemental mercury. METHODS: pure tone audiometric tests were done (air and bone conduction measures), speech audiometric tests and immittance measures (timpanometry and acoustic reflexes thresholds) in 13 workers, all of them male, 38.5 years old in average and mean exposure time of six years. After that, auditory processing tests were done in nine workers (verbal dichotic listening test and frequency pattern test - PPS). RESULTS: among the 13 workers who took the audiometric tests and immittance measure tests, six of them (46%) developed sensoriumneural hearing loss and seven of them (54%) developed altered acoustic reflex thresholds. Among nine workers who took the auditory processing test, three of them (33.5%) registered altered results in both verbal dichotic listening and PPS tests. CONCLUSIONS: peripheral and central auditory disorders were identified.