Deafness at work

• EXAMINES THE EFFECTS OF NOISE 'NOISE POLLUTION' is the latest fashionable by-word, with agitation against Jumbo jets, airports and motorways heading the list.

In the glamour of this new-found catch-phrase, it is generally forgotten that noise pollution is nothing new, and that in industries like textiles, heavy engineering, shipbuilding and nail-making, 'noise pollution' has been a reality for many years.

Unlike a number of other harmful pollutants-poisonous chemicals, asbestos, carcinogens, etc., the worker has virtually no legal protection against noise.

Controls are, to all intents and purposes, non-existent. Yet the effects, while less dramatic, can be as crippling as exposure to harmful chemicals.

The effects of loud and continuous industrial noise are not very dramatic in most icases.

In simple terms the sufferer slowly but surely becomes deaf.

He or she may not notice for some years that their hearing is less acute. By the time the deafness is noticed, it may be so marked as to prevent hearing of normal conversation.

Over a working lifetime, industrial noise can produce almost complete deafness.

The reason why this happens is now fairly well understood by scientists and doctors who treat and study industrial deafness.

It appears that constant exposure of. the delicate ear membranes to strong vibrations and changes of pressure thickens them and makes them less sensitive, particularly to the higher tones which play an important part in speech, and a key part in music.

Hearing ability is at its peak in youth and deteriorates with age, even under normal conditions.

No doubt this ageing process is connected with the exposure which everyone undergoes at one time or another to loud noises, which have a cumulative effect.

It is now possible to calculate the degree of deafness which will be caused by a specific amount of loud noise.

It has even been said that the loud music played in discotheques has a measurable effect in causing hearing loss. If this is the case for a few hours' exposure to loud pop music there is little doubt that working in a noisy job can be very damaging indeed to hearing.

The question of hearing loss caused by exposure to loud noise at work has been investigated by a number of scientific research teams.

But their findings have made little impact on the situation in the factories.

Most of their proposals boil down to providing ear-mufflers for people working under these conditions.

over the noise and ear-mufflers would lead to a deterioration in safety.

Much of the research that has been done comes from the National Physical Laboratory - a government laboratory with a record of objective and painstaking research in This laboratory is now threatened with the Tory axe. The new Trade and Industry supremo, John Davies, has made it known that the government is to be 'disengaged' from industry — laboratories like the National Physical Laboratory will be cut to the bone.

"The government,' Davies industria development if industry is prepared to pay the government to do it.' In other words, the Tories are going to break up the government laboratories and put the damper on all industrial research which is not directly financed by industrial firms.

The current research into hearing loss and industrial deatness will priorities if they have to pay for research themselves.