The TUC has joined forces with the RNID (Royal National Institute for Deaf People) and the European Federation of the Hard of Hearing (EFHOH) to call on Members of the European Parliament and Governments to ensure that the best hearing protection is provided to workers under the Noise at Work Directive, which is under discussion.
The organisations have written to MEPs, claim it is vital that hearing tests are extended to the million workers in Britain exposed to potentially damaging levels of noise. Testing would encourage the early detection of hearing problems and the prevention of profound hearing loss.
The organisations also want MEPs to defeat a proposed amendment to exclude the leisure industry from the Directive for five years, that would leave workers vulnerable to hearing damage in one of the UK’s fastest-growing industries. A joint paper from the three campaigning organisations explaining how the leisure industry could easily meet the requirements of the Directive has been sent to the MEPs and is available from RNID.
According to the TUC, free hearing tests at work would help identify problems earlier and improve people’s access to help with hearing loss. In Britain, this would increase the number of people covered by hearing tests from 273,000 to 1,097,000 (according to Health and Safety Executive estimates).
