Good health and well-being
Hearing is one of our most vital senses and impairment can lead to severe degradation in quality of life. IEC TC 29 provides the standards to support national health programmes to carry out reliable hearing tests using fit-for-purpose diagnostic equipment at all stages of life from birth to old age. Where hearing loss is identified, standards on hearing aid performance testing ensure that devices to restore hearing function can be effectively matched to individuals for maximum benefit.
Aside from disease and inherent disability, hearing is most commonly put at risk from excessive noise exposure. Indeed, noise induced hearing loss is one of the most prevalent occupational diseases. However, noise does not only present a risk of hearing damage. It is widely recognised that habitual exposure to lower levels of noise can result in a range of other severe health impacts such as cardio-vascular diseases, decline in mental health, and obesity. It can also impact physical and cognitive developments in childhood. Environmental and occupational noise measurement is therefore vital to combat these risks and IEC TC 29 provides standards for noise measurement instrumentation so that they can be reliably assessed and ultimately, controlled.