Aircraft Mechanic Ototoxicity If you are like me, you have met a lot of older Airframe and/or Powerplant Mechanics and pilots that have hearing issues. You might even be one yourself. It makes a lot of sense. We spend a lot of time in loud shops and then a lot of time around loud engines running. I can remember a time not too long ago when I was stuffed up in the back of a CRJ200 yelling into a cellphone with both packs running off of the screaming APU, trying to tell the pilot when to activate the dump valves. I still think that that is the loudest single event I have ever been involved with. What does not make sense it how few of us have heard of ototoxicity or know the intricacies of the hearing process. So, what is it? What if I told you that hearing was at its root, a chemical process? The sound waves travel into the auditory canal and vibrate the ear drum, which in turn transmits the w...