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Workers across Britain have been encouraged to examine their own bodies for signs of work-induced illnesses and diseases such as industrial deafness and to take the responsibility for their own health by comparing their bodies with their colleagues to see if there are any similarities.
Health and Safety regulations outline procedures like "body mapping" so that patterns of ill health can be discovered across workplaces.
What is body mapping exactly?
Safety representatives can easily see when something is wrong in the workplace but it's far more difficult for workers to find out how work might be causing damage to their own bodies of our colleagues and creating problems such as industrial deafness. Some people dismiss aches and pains as part of 'growing older', not realising (or not wanting to admit) that it might be their work situation that is causing the problems.
During the body-mapping process, somebody would use body outlines (front and back) on a piece of paper and put a sticker on the relevant body part of the body map to show what symptoms they have.
Different colours identify different symptoms, with red equalling aches and pains, blue equalling cuts and bruises, green equalling illnesses and black equalling everything else. Industrial deafness suffered in from noise as a work-related accident would result in a red dot for ear pain and hearing loss.
How does noise cause hearing loss?
When somebody is over-exposed to excessive sound, the sensitive cells in the cochlea are affected. Some cells are more sensitive than others and noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) and industrial deafness can affect the hearing of certain frequencies. In an audiogram, the graph will "dip" to reflect this.
Ears can be injured by brief noise input, like an explosion, or from continuous exposure to loud sounds over time.
High noise levels damage hair cells, affecting those in the basal part of the cochlea first - which are connected to higher frequency sounds - and then those which pick up lower frequencies.
Loss of sound perception happens in the 4-5 kilohertz (kHz) range first, progressing in severity and into lower frequency ranges.
The first symptom of NIHL is difficulty hearing conversations and people sounding like a 'jumble of noise'. Consonants often get lost first.
Is there anything you can do about NIHL?
Industrial deafness and NIHL is irreversible, painless and can happen to anyone at any age. The damage develops over time, so while symptoms may seem temporary, hearing loss and problems like tinnitus can become permanent with enough exposure to noise.
You can prevent industrial deafness and NIHL by controlling the volume of loud sounds and exposure time to the sound. If you notice symptoms such as voices sounding muffled, ringing, buzzing and hyper-sensitivity then you might have NIHL and hearing loss.
Industrial deafness compensation
Suffering a work accident which causes you to lose a sensory perception such as sight or hearing can be extremely upsetting.
We depend on our senses not just to survive but also to appreciate life, friends and family. While many personal injuries can improve over time with medical treatment, hearing loss is permanent.
It is understandable that somebody who has experienced a work accident resulting in hearing loss or industrial deafness may want to pursue a compensation claim if their employer is liable.
YouClaim can give you free legal advice from our team of highly experienced personal injury advisors and we have a first-rate success rate. We will find the right no win, no fee solicitor for you and our no win, no fee policy means that you won't have to pay us anything at any time and 100 % of all awarded damages will go directly to you.
You can either chat online with us now, request a call-back using our online form or call us to claim direct on 0800 10 757 95.
