The instinctive response by those with normal hearing is to consider an individual with a hearing loss problem to be congenitally deaf. Alternatively, they could be seen as suffering a lifelong slight deafness. Either way, a natural disability is the obvious conclusion.

However, the causes of deafness are not at all certain, especially as the likelihood is that industrial deafness has to be now seriously considered. It is estimated that around 70,000 or more people in the UK claim they have a hearing problem, caused or made worse by current or former workplace conditions.

Often hearing loss advice  given to men and women working in environments highly likely to be a cause of noise induced hearing loss , is to examine their own bodies for work-induced symptoms of injurious conditions, such as hearing damage and to take the responsibility for their own health by comparing their bodies with their colleagues to see if there are any similarities.

Patterns of ill health can also be uncovered across workplaces by using procedures like ‘body mapping’, as recommended by Health and Safety regulations. A simple procedure, ‘body mapping’ uses body shape outlines – front and back – drawn on a piece of paper. Members of the workforce are asked to place a sticker showing their individual symptoms on the relevant body part of the map.

Different colours are used to identify different symptoms, e.g. red = aches and pains, blue = cuts and bruises, green = illnesses and black for everything else. Industrial deafness suffered as a result from noise at a work-related accident would result in a red dot for ear pain and hearing loss.

It is always far more difficult for workers to readily notice how work might be causing damage to their own bodies or to their colleagues, and especially with the  slow, barely detectable deterioration of hearing, often leading to industrial deafness.

Too often the symptoms are dismissed as a lifelong slight disability, part of ‘growing older’ and not realising- or not wanting to admit – that the problems may actually be caused by injurious conditions at work.