Guide to Industrial Deafness and Workplace Hearing Loss
Industrial Deafness
Due to the ageing process every person’s hearing deteriorates to a level that they may require the television turned up louder or miss parts of conversations when in a group of people. The general deterioration in hearing to due the ageing process is known as presbyacusis. However if you were exposed to excessive levels of noise in your employment this may have contributed to your hearing loss.
The way that a persons hearing work is that sound consists of vibrations of air in the form of waves. In the ear there are tiny cells called hair cells which move in response to the vibrations caused by noise. These vibrations are then converted into signals that are transmitted to the brain. In the brain, the signals are interpreted into language or music. The volume of sound is measured in decibels (dB) and when you are exposed to excessive levels of noise the tiny hair cells in your ear become damaged.
The severity of Industrial Deafness/Noise Induced Deafness can vary depending on the length and level of exposure suffered by the individual. Any occupation with exposure to loud noises on a continuous day-to-day basis can result in hearing loss due to nerve end damage. Some people are more susceptible than others.
To test if a person suffers from a hearing loss a hearing test known as audiometry will be undertaken. The audiometry tests the hearing over a series of noise frequencies from low pitched noise to high pitched noise and the results are plotted on a graph. Damage caused from exposure to excessive levels of noise affects higher frequencies which include speech frequencies and therefore many people with noise induced hearing loss struggle to follow a conversation when there is background noise, and to hear the door or telephone bell ring.
Claim compensation with our specialist solicitors
Irwin Mitchell has represented thousands of people in the UK with Industrial Deafness and noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) caused by work conditions. Many of these claims have been for people who had worked in the steel, engineering, construction and textile industries but this list is not exhaustive and anyone who has been exposed to excessive levels of noise could suffer from Industrial Deafness/Noise Induced Hearing Loss.
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