Pre-employment hearing threshold levels of 59,601 Australian male coal miners compared to an otologically normal international male population (ISO7029:2019).

These findings indicate that some NSW coal mine workers commence their careers with evidence of pre-existing hearing loss (HL), in an industry with excessive noise exposures. These results provide Australian mining and other noisy industries with evidence to support a review of hearing conservation strategies to improve mitigation of hearing loss across the working lifespan.