OH professionals need to recognise that changing social habits – especially people listening to content through headphones at work or while commuting – are “dramatically” changing how occupational noise risk needs to be managed and considered.
Clare Forshaw, founder of the UK Hearing Conservation Association and professional head of health and wellbeing at the Rail Safety and Standards Board, made the call at last week’s joint Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM) Occupational Health Nursing Conference.
Forshaw outlined how while, in general, workplaces have become less industrial, the common perception that this also means they have become less noisy may be misplaced.
“We do have less of the traditional noisy industries. But we still have a lot of noisy workplaces, and I think that is where the challenge arises,” she told delegates to the conference, held online and in-person at the RCN’s headquarters in London.
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“We assume these are all quiet places, but leisure centres, coffee shops, even open-plan offices can become quite noisy. When we assume that they’re not ‘industrious’ because they don’t have heavy machinery working, we might very well miss the risk and make some assumptions that are unfounded,” she said.
People’s social exposure to sound had changed “drastically and dramatically” over the last 10-20 years, she highlighted, in particular the rise of listening to music or other content through headphones and personal devices, whether when commuting or at work.
“I did a quick tot-up on the Tube the other day. One row, 100% were plugged into listening devices and about one in six on the other side. In that one carriage, the majority of people were listening to some kind of oral content,” Forshaw said.
“People go home from work, they’re listening. Travelling to work, they’re listening. And possibly even listening out of work or while at work. Listening habits are changing,” she added.
This was especially the case among 16- to 34-year-olds, many of whom will now be listening through headphones and/or their personal devices. One hour listening to content at 94 decibels (dB) on the way to work could mean a worker reaches their daily ‘safe’ exposure limit before they even arrive at work, she pointed out.
However, people will often crank up the volume if they’re on a noisy Tube or train, or a noisy street. “So it is not unusual to be listening at or above 100dB,” she highlighted, where your safe exposure limit could be as little as 15 minutes.
“What is that going to mean for us as occupational health professionals? When we’re just looking at when you clock on and clock off, and can we keep you safe within those boundaries, within those hours?” asked Forshaw.
“You used to go into a factory or manufacturing plant and the first thing you’d do is say, ‘you can turn that radio off for a start, that’s where your noise is coming from’ because it would be blasting out all day to drown out all the other noise. You could easily see it, hear it, and intervene.
“Now people are listening sat at their desks, listening to their own music or maybe even using headphones for their work. It is really interesting in terms of the application of the Control of Noise at Work Regulations and the Health and Safety at Work Act when we have lots more people listening to personal content or work content – and we’re probably not doing risk assessments for noise anyway.
“We’re almost certainly not looking at that hearing/listening content within our risk assessment. It is probably not being captured or included, which is where potentially as occupational health professionals we can start asking the questions and try to uncover what that added risk – and liability – might be.
“If we’ve got all this listening content going on, when we’re trying to say, ‘is this occupational noise-induced hearing loss?’, it is going to be much more difficult for us to judge and distinguish between that risk people are bringing to work and the risk they’re exposed to at work,” Forshaw added.
The flipside of this, however, was that there was an opportunity for occupational health to be leading on this evolving conversation, Forshaw highlighted.
“We do have a real opportunity and role where we can advise,” Forshaw said, including highlighting the importance of people using their daily noise ‘dose’ wisely.
“Hopefully we can modernise our approach, reflecting society and listening habits and the world we live in now in relation to holistic hearing conservation. We are critical to risk management, we do provide that wider perspective on risk and health. We do, hopefully, allow for that early detection and early intervention and, crucially, that education and advice,” Forshaw said.
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