Health and Safety
Executive
Health Surveillance for
Noise Induced Hearing Loss
Health Effects of Noise Exposure
• Noise Induced Hearing Loss – permanent,
irreversible
• Tinnitus
• May also affect performance, communication &
audibility of safety/warning signals
Noise Induced Hearing Loss
• Hearing loss caused by work is a significant
occupational disease
• Recent research indicates 170,000 people
suffer from hearing damage due to noise at
work
• Factors contributing to damage include the
intensity of noise and length of exposure
Health Surveillance
• Specific regulation (reg 9) for health surveillance
• HSE guidance specifies risk at 85dB
• Employers need to provide health surveillance for
all workers regularly exposed above 85dB
What is Health Surveillance for
NIHL?
• Health surveillance is ‘audiometry’
• This is a method of ‘hearing checks’
which measures the sensitivity of hearing
over a range of sound frequencies
• This is done by presentation of pure tones
to each ear at specific frequencies
Issues for new guidance for health
surveillance
• When will it be required
– all those regularly exposed above 85dB
– Only for susceptible individuals if requested
between 80 and 85dB
• Who should conduct the testing
– Any person with appropriate training
– referral to a doctor when problem identified
– referral facilitated by categorisation scheme
The health surveillance provider –
what to expect
• Should be designated person in charge of HS
programme
– Occupational physician, or nurse with
specialist training in audiometry, or audiologist.
• Person conducting test
– as a minimum, appropriate training so that
testing is carried out in a repeatable and
accurate manner.
– training syllabus by the British Society of
Audiology
– HSE likely to develop syllabus independently
Changes to current guidance
• Reflects changes in legislation
• Improvement to current categorisation scheme –
simpler & easier to use/interpret
• Included as a chapter within main guidance so
that everybody has access to the informati