A loss of hearing at your workplace can occur by all manner of causes, and not just confined to industrial deafness as a result of working in heavy manufacturing, industrial fabrications, textiles, shipbuilding and the railways, as are most commonly singled out. It has emerged that a high number of police officers have suffered hearing damage because of the high volume of their radios.

In the past five years, a total of 815 officers around Britain have reported noise induced hearing loss, some permanently, by a variety of causes, including detonating grenades, barking dogs, cannon fire and fireworks, the top one being radio ‘spikes’ – or screeches – from police headsets.

Statistics compiled for Police Review magazine show that hearing damage has been reported by officers in 44 of the UK’s 55 forces, a majority of 571, made by officers working for Lancashire Constabulary between 2005 and 2009. West Midlands admitted 88 reports of hearing damage and Leicestershire Police confirmed 30 cases. However, the Met and the Police Service of Northern Ireland did not respond to the Freedom of Information request in time.

The problem of radio ‘spikes’ or ‘shrieks’ on the police Airwave Tetra system radios, caused by overcrowded bandwidths reducing digital clarity, are claimed to be the result of the government allowing forces to buy their own pieces of equipment instead of having one standard issue model.

It is claimed that the deafness causes a permanent painful ringing in their ears, with an inability to hear the caller properly. Many police officers report being affected to such an extent, both psychologically as well as physically, they are prevented from carrying out their duties.

The Royal National Institute for the Deaf told Police Review that in order for noise to cause a hearing problem, it needs to be “loud levels of noise over a long period of time”. If officers are exposed to lots of noise in their work, then they should be aware of “how much noise they are exposed to in their recreation time” as well.