Use Deaf Awareness Week to Reduce Workplace Noise

MEDIA RELEASE
Monday September 24

New Zealanders Urged to Use Deaf Awareness Week to Reduce Workplace Noise

Excessive noise at work caused more than four and a half thousand New Zealanders over the past year to go deaf – deafness that cannot be cured, and could have been avoided.

This is Deaf Awareness Week and ACC’s Injury Prevention Programme Manager John Wallaart is urging New Zealanders to use the week to think about how they can avoid joining the Corporation’s statistics.

Each day ACC sees on average 12 new cases of Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL), and that figure is going up each year.

Nationwide, 4,630 people made new claims with ACC in the July 2006/June 2007 year, at a cost of more than $29,500 000.

John Wallaart said noise induced hearing loss is a gradual process and often goes unnoticed.

“Noise induced hearing loss is often classified by “the 4 Ps”, i.e., it’s Painless, Progressive, Permanent and Preventable,” he said. “But deafness can bring serious financial and social repercussions. A sufferer may not be able to do their job properly, so that affects them financially. They also cannot communicate easily with family and friends so can become isolated.”

“The most important point is that it’s a preventable condition. There are small and inexpensive changes everyone can make to manage noise, especially in the workplace, and avoid this very debilitating condition.”

ACC recommends that the top five ways to prevent hearing loss are:

- Control or eliminate the source of the noise if at all possible. Replace noisy equipment with quieter equipment or processes. Box in noisy machinery or process areas so the general workplace is protected, or move it away from workers altogether.

- Think about your sound exposure away from the job too. Don’t also subject yourself to noisy recreational activities without taking steps to protect your hearing.

- If you can’t eliminate or isolate the noise, you must wear ear plugs or ear muffs (personal protective equipment, or PPE), whenever you’re in a noisy environment. And you must wear it all the time – studies have shown that not wearing hearing protection even for short periods can seriously reduce its effectiveness.

- Make sure you’re always wearing the right protective equipment for the right job, and that it’s maintained properly. There is plenty of help out there to ensure all workers have the right hearing protection.

- Get your hearing checked regularly and if the audiologist believes your hearing is being compromised, take action to reduce future damage!

Overall, ACC spent $54 million (including payments from earlier claims) over the past year on noise induced hearing loss claims, which was an increase of about $10 million on the 2005 / 2006 year.

“These are costs that, ultimately, industry has to bear,” John Wallaart said. “Noise induced hearing loss is a serious problem for New Zealand and New Zealanders. Deaf Awareness Week gives us all a timely opportunity to look at how we are controlling noise in and out of our workplaces and how we could do better.”

Agriculture and fisheries workers, trades workers, machine operators and assemblers make up 53% of new NIHL ACC claimants. Most claims are lodged in middle age or later, and 95% of claimants are male.

ENDS

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