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Attention: industrial editors and health and safety journals

A million workers should get a hearing test from Europe

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, being discussed in Strasburg, today (Tuesday 2, July 2002).

The organisations have written to MEPs, engaged in last minute negotiations with Governments over the Directive, saying it is vital they ensure that hearing tests are extended to the million workers in Britain exposed to potentially damaging levels of noise. This 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. Workers in the leisure industry have the same right to protection as those in other industries, such as manufacturing, where high levels of noise are already accepted as damaging.

A group of MEPs led by Danish Socialist Helle Thorning-Schmidt, including Labour’s Stephen Hughes and Liberal Democrat Liz Lynne, will meet this afternoon with representatives of European Governments in what is known as the 'conciliation procedure' to hammer out a joint text for the Directive, which will then become law across the EU later in the summer.

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.

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).

TUC General Secretary, John Monks, said:

'People who work in noisy jobs need to look after their ears, and hearing tests can identify problems early, while there is still time to prevent profound hearing loss. If more people had hearing tests, less people would lose their hearing in later life.

'And it can’t be right that manufacturing has to cut the noise levels and protect its workers’ health while pubs and clubs can carry on damaging the hearing of bar staff and musicians alike. No one is trying to stop people hearing loud music, but lots of musicians are suffering deafness for their art, or having to retire early, and we do want that to stop.'

Notes to Editors:

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Contacts:

Media enquiries:

TUC: 020 7467 1248 or email media@tuc.org.uk

RNID: Mo Prendergast and Abigail Jones on 020 7296 8136 and 020 72968060

Other enquiries: Owen Tudor, TUC Health and Safety specialist, on 020 74671325.

Press release (600 words) issued 2 Jul 2002