There are 800,000 retired people in the UK suffering from a work-related illness, often hearing impaired by years of working in a noisy environment.

Stone processing can be noisy enough to be lead to hearing damage in the long-term – a condition known as Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL).

Health & Safety Executive (HSE) official statistics highlight the significance of the disease, in that:

• annually, around 15,000 workers have NIHL, equating to a rate of 48 cases per 100,000 employees
• about 130 new claims are awarded Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit every year
• the disease occurs predominantly in men, who account for 99.2% of all new cases
• construction has one of the highest rates of NIHL

To tackle noise in your workplace, start with Hearing Conservation e-Learning. Click here to find out more.