Hearing loss

Noise at work can cause hearing loss which can be temporary or permanent. People often experience temporary deafness after leaving a noisy place. Although hearing recovers within a few hours, this should not be ignored. It is a sign that if you continue to be exposed to the noise your hearing could be permanently damaged.

Permanent hearing damage can be caused immediately by sudden, extremely loud, explosive noises, e.g. from guns or cartridge-operated machines. But hearing loss is usually gradual because of prolonged exposure to noise. It may only be when damage caused by noise over the years combines with hearing loss due to ageing that people realise how deaf they have become. This may mean their family complains about the television being too loud, they cannot keep up with conversations in a group, or they have trouble using the telephone. Eventually everything becomes muffled and people find it difficult to catch sounds like ‘t’, ‘d’ and ‘s’, so they confuse similar words.

Hearing loss is not the only problem. People may develop tinnitus (ringing, whistling, buzzing or humming in the ears), a distressing condition which can lead to disturbed sleep.

Please note:" Young people can be damaged as easily as the old."

Legislation

The 2005 regulations came into force on the 6^th April 2006 and significantly reduce the level of exposure permissible in the ‘Noise at Work Regulations 1989’. The 2005 regulations set out a number of requirements including Exposure Limit Values and Action Values.

The regulations require the employer to:

• assess the risks to your employees from noise at work;

• take action to reduce the noise exposure that produces those risks;

• provide your employees with hearing protection if you cannot reduce the noise exposure enough by using other methods;

• make sure the legal limits on noise exposure are not exceeded;

• provide your employees with information, instruction and training;

• carry out health surveillance where there is a risk to health.

Noise Risk Assessments

The aim of the risk assessment is to help you decide what you need to do to ensure the health and safety of your employees who are exposed to noise. It is more than just taking measurements of noise – sometimes measurements may not even be necessary. A risk assessment should:

• identify where there may be a risk from noise and who is likely to be affected;

• contain a reliable estimate of your employees’ exposures, and compare the exposure with the exposure action values and limit values;

• identify what you need to do to comply with the law, e.g. whether noise-control measures or hearing protection are needed, and, if so, where and what type; and

• identify any employees who need to be provided with health surveillance and whether any are at particular risk.

• It is essential that you can show that your estimate of employees’ exposure is representative of the work that they do. It needs to take account of:

• the work they do or are likely to do;

• the ways in which they do the work; and

• how it might vary from one day to the next.

• estimates must be based on reliable information, e.g. measurements in the workplace, information from other workplaces similar to yours, or data from suppliers of machinery.

• It must record the findings of the risk assessment, and

• record in an action plan anything you identify as being necessary to comply with the law, setting out what you have done and what you are going to do, with a timetable and saying who will be responsible for the work.

• The risk assessment must be reviewed if circumstances in the workplace change affecting the noise exposures.

• Also it should be reviewed regularly to ensure it continues to do all that is reasonably practicable to control the noise risks.

• Even if it appears that nothing has changed, you should not leave it for more than about two years without checking whether a review is needed.

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For more information or assistance with performing: monitoring, risk assessments or the production and operation of a management plan, call for free advice on 0845 6039053