Summary

People using their voice professionally are at risk for occupational voice diseases, and require specific prevention and treatment was the topic focused on by the third Pan European Voice Conference, organized in August 1999 at Utrecht University. The present book includes the main tutorial lectures, with reviews of the most relevant research data and opinions regarding this specific area of concern. Occupational voice users include not only singers and actors, but also teachers, politicians, lawyers, clergymen, telephone operators, etc.(1). The pathogenesis of voice disorders in such patients can be primarily related to their occupation, and thus, after adequate differential diagnosis, these need to be recognized as true occupational diseases, in the same way as, for example, occupational hearing loss (2). A surfeit of information is available on the potential damage from exposure to excessive noise levels(3,4). Noise-induced hearing loss is generally recognized as a typical occupational disease. The relationship between dose and effect is clear, as is documented in publications by the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) (5). The dose combines intensity and duration, and therefore, the concept of dosimetry is of major importance. Also of importance is the definition of the safe limits for exposure to noise. However, factors regarding individual susceptibility to noise and the reversibility of early effects also have to be considered, as well as possible preventive indices of noise-induced hearing loss (6). In some - but not all - respects, noise-induced hearing loss may be considered as a useful model for occupational voice disorders.