Noise at work – symptoms of industrial deafness
Do you often come home from work and find you are turning up the TV or Radio, or do your find that you are struggling to hear what other family members or friends are saying? If experiences like these are an everyday occurrence, then you might be suffering from some form of work-related hearing loss, commonly known as industrial deafness. Today on the Camps blog I am going to look at the various degrees of industrial deafness.
Industrial deafness is caused by exposure to harmful levels of noise whilst at work, whether from heavy machinery in a factory environment, vehicles in a garage or even normal office equipment. Anywhere that the noise exceeds a certain level, (around 80 decibels) there is a risk of temporary or permanent hearing damage. This hearing damage can range from minor tinnitus (a ringing sensation in your ears) through partial hearing loss to total deafness depending on the level of noise, the frequency of the noise and the length of exposure to the noise.
Tinnitus is a ringing sensation in the ear, in the absence of any corresponding external sound. It can occur in one or both ears and whilst it is described by most sufferers as sounding like ringing, it has also been said by some to sound like whining, buzzing, hissing, screaming, humming, whistling, ticking, clicking, roaring as well as sounding like animals such as crickets, tree frogs or locusts. Tinnitus varies in severity between sufferers; where some people might only hear it at certain times or in certain situations, others might hear it constantly, even in very noisy conditions.
Partial or total hearing loss can be another side effect of working in a noisy environment without adequate protection. Partial hearing loss may affect the sufferer’s ability to hear sounds at a certain frequency or range of frequencies. In the case of work related hearing loss, acoustic tests can be performed to determine which frequencies a person can and cannot hear. If the frequencies that the person cannot hear are the same frequencies to be found in their workplace, then it is quite likely that workplace noise caused their partial hearing loss.
If you work in a noisy environment, in a factory, an office or outdoors, and you believe this has affected your hearing, it might be worth seeking independent legal advice from a workplace accident solicitor. At Camps we have a team of workplace accident solicitors who have many years experience handling a wide variety of workplace injury claims, including those for work-related hearing loss/industrial deafness. For more information or to make a No-Win No-Fee claim, call 0800 092 8586 today.
