It could be one of the best kept secrets in the industrial workplace, right to this very day. Certainly, industrial deafness consistently featured as the elephant in the room for most of the UK’s industrial past as employers simply failed to recognise the excessive noise levels, to which, many workers were constantly exposed during their period of employment.

Too often, of course, many workers simply ignored the risks and accepted the noise levels as ‘part of the job’ and convinced themselves that you soon’ got used’ to it, even though irreverseable damage was being inflicted.

Even some years later, large numbers of former employees were still mostly unaware of the hearing damage that had been caused until becoming aware they were no longer able to distinctly hear parts of spoken conversation or realising they needed to frequently turn up the TV volume level – only to be told the volume was too loud!

It was only after being finally persuaded to take an audiogram test that it was realised that they were, indeed, suffering from increasing noise induced hearing loss, caused by years of exposure to excessive workplace noise and the effect of the natural aging process. Incredibly, it has been estimated that there could be over 170,000 undiagnosed conditions of hearing loss in the UK today, yet only around 9 per cent of males and 13 per cent of females above 16 years of age have actually reported signs of hearing loss.

In more recent years, as a result of introducing Noise at Work Regulations, the disregard of which led to companies facing legal proceedings and the paying of substantial compensation, many employers have been forced to take action to both protect their employees from potential hearing damage by providing adequate hearing protection and awareness training.

It is not often realised that until the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) was formally introduced in 1974, together with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Code of Practice to ensure “ ..the health, safety and welfare at work of all (company) employees”, there could be little to no hearing protection equipment made available to heavy industrial, engineering and construction workers or were refused to be worn.

As late as 1989, a further directive under the Noise at Work Regulations was issued by the EEC designed to “protect workers from risks related to exposure to noise at work” by the reduction of excessive noise levels.