The Institute of Medicine carried out a study mandated by Congress and sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide an assessment of several issues related to noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus associated with service in the Armed Forces since World War II. The resulting book, Noise and Military Service: Implications for Hearing Loss and Tinnitus, presents findings on the presence of hazardous noise in military settings, levels of noise exposure necessary to cause hearing loss or tinnitus, risk factors for noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus, the timing of the effects of noise exposure on hearing, and the adequacy of military hearing conservation programs and audiometric testing. The book stresses the importance of conducting hearing tests (audiograms) at the beginning and end of military service for all military personnel and recommends several steps aimed at improving the military services' prevention of and surveillance for hearing loss and tinnitus. The book also identifies research needs, emphasizing topics specifically related to military service.

This book will relate the history of occupational health efforts in each of the military services and describe the current programs, including discussion of the occurrence and prevention of occupational threats to service members and civilians from the environment and military equipment. Individual chapters will focus on: medical evaluations, workers’ compensation, surveillance, ergonomics, hearing protection, radiation, specific hazardous substances, and particular environments such as aerospace and underseas. It is a revised, updated, and expanded version of the occupational health Textbook of Military Medicine published in 1993.