The Trades Union Congress and hearing charity the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, have warned employers and employees that they may need to make significant changes to their workplaces and systems if they are to comply with the new Control of Noise at Work Regulations SI 2005/1643, which come into force on 6 April 2006. The new tighter Regulations will provide improved protection from one of the UK's most serious occupational diseases and aims to alter the noise levels at which workers must be provided with and wear hearing protection. In addition, they require employers to reduce noise levels through a "hierarchy of control measures", ranging from acoustic and mechanical design to hearing surveillance and protection.
Estimates are that over 1 million employees in the UK are exposed to levels of noise which put their hearing at risk and around 170,000 suffer damage to their hearing as a result of exposure to excessive noise at work. This can take the form of loss of hearing to a permanent sensation of noises, or ringing in the ears, known as tinnitus.
