Employers Warned to Take Hearing Damage Seriously

The Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID), the charity which represents 9 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, has joined with the TUC in issuing a warning to employers and employees to take the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 seriously.

Under the Regulations, limits on exposure to noise levels were tightened up in order to provide improved protection for workers from one of Britain’s most serious occupational diseases. The noise level at which workers are required to have hearing protection available is 80dB(A) and the level at which they are required to wear hearing protection is 85dB(A). Hearing protection must ensure that average exposure levels never exceed 87dB(A).

It is estimated that excessive noise in the workplace has caused half a million people living in Great Britain to suffer deafness or other hearing difficulties. The threat of noise-induced hearing loss is often not taken seriously and the effects are not immediately obvious. If protective measures are taken, it is totally preventable.

The RNID and the TUC have called on employers to lower or eliminate employees’ exposure to noise in the following ways:

• replace old machinery with newer, quieter equipment;
• when purchasing new equipment, make sure you obtain information on noise levels before you buy;
• investigate with the supplier ways of ensuring that equipment makes as little noise as possible;
• reduce noise from equipment by changing how it is mounted or installing silencers or enclosures;
• maintain equipment regularly;
• keep noisy machinery in a separate area;
• make sure employees spend as little time as is necessary in a noisy environment or create a noise-reduced enclosure for employees; and
• reduce reverberations by the use of sound absorbing materials.

From 6 April 2008 the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 were extended to the music and entertainment sectors, which had been given a two-year transitional period before implementation of the Regulations. Although there is ample evidence that exposure to live music can cause hearing damage, it was recognised that music is different from other noise as it is created deliberately for entertainment purposes and therefore guidance was necessary to help employers, workers and freelancers in the industry to protect their hearing.

The music and entertainment sectors are defined in the Regulations as all workplaces where:

• live music is played; or
• recorded music is played in a restaurant, bar, public house, discotheque or nightclub, or alongside live music or a live dramatic or dance performance.

Employers in these sectors are required to assess and manage the risks to employees and freelancers from damage due to exposure to noise and to put effective controls and protective measures in place to ensure the legal limits on noise exposure are not exceeded. For more information, see http://www.hse.gov.uk/noise/musicsound.htm.