The Ear of Ama

Ama is a professional sea-diving woman for fishing and her occupational disease has been reported in some localities of her body, especially in the ear.This report was compiled as a result of the otological examination of Ama at Hekura Island in Ishikawa Prefecture. The number of Ama interviewed was 40, The results were as follows:1) Ages ranged from 15 to 58, all of them female.2) The main complaints in the auditory organ were otalzia, blockade of the ear and tinnitus, but deafness in few subjects.3) The abnormal view of eardrums was found 75% by the otological examination, most of which showed sinking, turbidness or roughness.Especially we found the exostosis in external ear canal in 7 Ama.4) The resulting loss of hearing was indicated in half of them, whose type was generally sensorineural deafness and increased with ages.5) In almost all, the inflation of the auditory tube was good.6) Ama are considered to indicate that all these symptoms were caused by external agents in the sea, namely the water pressure equilibration of the ear during diving.