Professions at Risk of Industrial Deafness

Hundreds of thousands of workers risk damage to their hearing every day when they go their workplace. Those employees working in the leisure industry, mining and manufacturing, transportation and jobs involving headsets have exposure to especially noisy environments.

Call Centres
However, contrary to what you might think, not all headsets help with hearing. Professions that use headsets, such as police, couriers, and call centre workers, have the risk of acoustic trauma, which is a form of sudden hearing loss. After research showed that 15% of call centre workers had exposure to dangerously high noise levels, many companies started using limiting devices that reduced the risk of acoustic trauma.

Leisure industry
While not commonly recognised, pleasing noise can cause severe hearing problems. The leisure industry has many employees working in an environment around very loud music. Nightclubs, restaurants and pubs have average noise levels in the range of 95 to 98 dB. All across the UK, many of their workers spend hours in this loud atmosphere and have suffered some degree of industrial deafness. The musicians also have exposure to high noise levels. This is especially important to musicians since being able to hear their music is crucial to their performance and career. Fortunately, band members and DJs now know about the risk of industrial deafness, and they wear either ear plugs or some other form of hearing protection.

Mining and manufacturing
The extraction of raw materials from the ground requires heavy equipment which produces loud noise. Therefore, the quarrying and mining industries pose a significant threat of industrial deafness to their workers. A study conducted in the US found that 49% of male miners had developed hearing loss by the age of 50. Industrial deafness is well-known for workers in printing, wood cutting, stone cutting, textiles, engineering, ship building and metal work in addition to other professions related to these industries. All of these industries use noisy machinery to manufacture the products.

Transporation
Airline pilots have the possibility of developing industrial deafness as a result of the extremely high level of cockpit noise. The acceptable noise level in Europe is 80 dB, but this area of the airline industry is unrequlated in the US, and many pilots have the opinion that their health is being affected as a result. Fortunately, there are some headsets available that can reduce the noise level by up to 50%. Regular usage of these types of headsets has reduced the number of compensation claims for deafness.

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