What’s the loudest environment to work in? A building site? A factory? Maybe a bar or a club? Would it surprise you to know that call centres rank alongside these as among the loudest places to work? This infographic, produced by Johnson Law, gives some guidance about dB levels, and outlines some of the risks associated with exposure to excessive noise.

With an increasing number of people suffering from hearing problems as a result of their working environment, the decibel (dB) levels reached in the workplace are certainly something all HR departments should be aware of. Examples given here of dB levels in the workplace include widely-used tools such hand drills, which measure 98dB, and chainsaws, which are 115dB. If an employee is consistently exposed to 80dB or more, then they are among the one million people in the UK at risk of developing industrial deafness.

To put 80dB into context, normal conversation measures up to 66dB, therefore acoustic trauma is not just associated with the construction industry, and it’s worth investigating the volumes reached in your workplace, and familiarising yourself and your team with health and safety measures that offer auditory protection. More crucially, you should be aware of the relevant legislation in place to protect employees from suffering acoustic trauma.

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 (Noise Regulations 2005) states that employers must ‘prevent or reduce the risks to health and safety from exposure to noise at work’. Steps to put this into practice range from simply providing appropriate ear protection and ensuring it is used correctly, to assessing the layout of your workplace and altering it to minimise noise levels.

Staff should also be encouraged to give their ears time to recover if exposure to load noise cannot be avoided. This means 16 hours of quiet if they are exposed to 100dB of noise.

Audio trauma in the workplace can also result in a more common condition that currently affects around ten percent of the UK population – tinnitus. Tinnitus can be described as hearing a sound, such as ringing or humming, from within the body. While tinnitus can be caused by anything from a common cold to earwax, the most common cause is prolonged exposure to loud noise, and like industrial deafness, can be prevented. If any of your staff already suffer from tinnitus, advise them that listening to relaxing sounds is often a helpful distraction, and cognitive behavioural therapy can help manage symptoms. Ensure staff with tinnitus are offered support in coping with their condition. Industrial deafness and tinnitus are possibly not conditions that you associate with your business, but keep your ears open at work, and you may be surprised at what you hear.