The risk of being affected by hearing damage as a result of exceeding the permissible 8 hours exposure time to continuous 85 dBs in the workplace, was still prevalent up until the 1980s and 90s. Even today, there can still be many employers who are unaware of their responsibilities to protect their workforce from noise induced hearing loss under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations, 2006.

Over ten million people, or one in six in the UK suffer some form of hearing loss. Cases are regularly brought to court, which lead to significant damages being awarded to unfortunate victims who only realised several years later that constant exposure to excessive noise levels had been the cause of their failing ability to hear and not a direct consequence of ageing.

The long term dangers of industrial deafness are still present in industries, old and new, wherever there is a lack of proper and frequent risk assessments, sound level monitoring, awareness training, hazard warning notification and the issue of ear protection equipment.

Around the UK, examples of the most common industries with workplaces, which were and could still present sound level problems liable to cause hearing loss (or tinnitus), include building, demolition, road repair, engineering, woodworking, fabrication, foundries, forging, textile manufacturing, printing, canning or bottling.

Traditionally, working in close proximity to machinery or equipment which involves the striking of metal to metal, grinding, drilling, shearing, blasting or repeated high impact hammering have been the predominant cause of hearing damage to the inner ear hair cells.

However, increasing cases of noise induced hearing loss have been reported by staff employed at dentists surgeries, call centres, schools and children’s nurseries. Recent examples include a college lecturer who taught students how to use impact chisels and pneumatic tools eight hours per day in a motor vehicle body workshop for over 40 years during the 1960s and 70s. It was only several years after retirement that a significant loss to hearing began to be noticed.

Another case involves a call centre worker who suffered an acoustic shock when a malfunctioning headset, usually set to a high volume, sent a loud high pitched noise through the headset directly into the eardrums, which were ‘ringing’ for the next two hours. Later diagnosis confirmed a partial hearing loss and tinnitus in both ears and early symptoms of industrial deafness.