As a result of wilful malpractice or neglect throughout most of the UK’s industrial past, the traditional engineering and manufacturing workplace has become forever associated with countless hundreds of thousands of workers enduring constant excessive levels of heavy machinery noise every single day of their working lives. The inevitable result was the incalculable numbers of employees who suffered severe hearing damage, which ultimately, led to permanent chronic industrial deafness.

While reform, legislation and legal proceedings have helped to instil better employer responsibility and radically transform the health and safety conditions of most UK working environments to prevent noise induced hearing loss, many work sectors and professions can easily slip under the radar.

One such example applies to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the band members who regularly play with the Corps of Army Music. According to a BBC news report at the start of 2011, the MOD has issued an order to all its bandsmen to wear earplugs when playing their instruments and protect their hearing, as required by health and safety regulations.

However, there appears to have been some dissension in the ranks, not unlike the response from some regular factory or engineering workers who refuse to wear ear defenders, muffs or plugs for different reasons, including not being unable to hear their co-workers speak or for monitoring machinery.

A number of bandsmen are concerned that earplugs would interfere with precise listening to their playing of the instrument and might not hear that they are out of tune or not in time with the rest of the band, thereby, affecting the total performance.

Unsurprisingly, given that it is an MOD ruling, the order is to be kept in place to protect Service musicians from the risks of hearing loss. There are types of earplugs available that can filter rather than muffle and restrict the incoming sound, which means instruments can be both played safely and allow the music to be still clearly audible.

It is known that playing very loud music for long periods of time can change the way the brain processes sound, which could result in suffering tinnitus or the development of a more serious hearing impairment. The wearing of earplugs will reduce noise levels by 20 to 30 dB to below the recommended daily exposure level of 85 dB for eight hours.