Croftons Injury Claims

The Law
In 1963 the Health & Safety Executive together with the Government produced Regulations ‘Noise & the Worker’ placing obligations on an employer to protect the hearing of their employees from noise above 90 decibel level (dB). This could be in the form of either ear plugs (the yellow squashy ones) or ear defenders/muffs.

It became clear that little or no notice was being taken of the 1963 Regulations. On the 1st January 1990 the ‘Noise at Work Regulations 1989’ came into force. With these Regulations the level of noise that triggered the providing/wearing of hearing protection was reduced to 85db. The second important element to these Regulations was that not only did the employer have to provide the protection but also enforce the wearing of such protection by the workforce to protect them from the risk of deafness.

The above legislation was reinforced by the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 by stating

“An employer who carries out work which is liable to expose any employees to noise above 80db, shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk from that noise to the health & safety of those employees, and the risk assessment shall identify the measures which need to be taken to meet the requirements of the Regulations”

Employers are now required to comply with comprehensive legislation enacted to protect the hearing of their employees.

Noise Levels
Many people wrongly think that a noise of 90db must be a terrific noise, but when you consider that a normal conversation between 2-3 people is carried out at around 60-70db it can be seen that 90dB isn’t particularly loud.

At your place of work you may consider that the equipment/machine that you work on isn’t that noisy. However, you must also consider the number of machines that are within your immediate vicinity. If a noise is multiplied by 10 or up to 100 then obviously the decibel levels will increase. For example:

Consider the noise of one person clapping – not noisy

Consider 60,000 people in Wembley clapping – a phenomenal level of noise.

Employers – where do the risks of deafness caused by work lie?
It is recognised that the workplace can be noisy and some industries are considered high risk, e.g. construction, textile manufacture industry, engineering, shipbuilding, and metal manufacturing and processing.

The obligation on the employer is to take all reasonable steps to minimise the risk of damage to the hearing of their employees by providing suitable hearing protection and properly assessing the risk that employees are exposed to by the work that they do.

Employees – where do the risks of deafness caused by your work lie?
Damage to your hearing

Once your hearing has been damaged it can never be repaired. Your only option is to try and improve your level of hearing using hearing aids. Gone are the days of the big beige hearing aids. These days hearing aids are digital ones (more sensitive to different levels of noise) and a lot less visible. But this comes at a price. A set of hearing aids will cost around £5000 – and these will only last you around 5 years. The NHS can provide digital hearing aids but not the most up to date ones on the market.

Tinnitus
A common consequence of hearing loss is to also have tinnitus. This affects people in different ways but typically:

• It can be a whistle, whooshing, buzzing sound
• It can be in one ear or both ear
• It can be present occasionally or all the time. It can stop you going to sleep or can wake you from sleep.

Old Age – it comes to us all!!
Obviously as we get older our hearing will naturally deteriorate gradually over many years. With the stigma that is attached to the wearing of hearing aids you will almost always find a reason for your hearing loss. That is understandable; what is important is that you do not overlook the fact that the reason for your deafness may have been caused by your work.

What to do
If you suffer from any of the following and have worked in a noisy environment for at least 2 years you should contact us so we can advise you if you have a potential legal claim for compensation.

Struggling to hear conversations on the telephone

• Constantly asking people to repeat themselve
• Missing the telephone or doorbell ringing
• Unable to follow group conversations
• Unable to follow conversations in a noisy public place
• Think that people are mumbling when they talk to yo
• Complaints made to you about the volume of the television
• Complaints by family and friends that you shout a lot.

What we will do
As a firm of solicitors specialising in industrial deafness cases, we will arrange a hearing test at no cost to you to check your hearing levels.

If we consider you have a good potential claim we will deal with your case on a ‘no win no fee’ agreement.

We will seek to negotiate compensation for your hearing loss/tinnitus and where applicable the cost of hearing aids. If your claim is successful you will recover 100% of your compensation and your legal costs will be paid by your employer’s insurance company.

If you think that you have a case as a result of exposure to noise in the workplace or require further information call us free on 0800 2800 094, request a free callback or complete our online form.