Industrial Disease Conditions

Industrial Disease conditions are usually caused as a result of continued or repeated exposure to a noise or substance or action. There are many, many people who are affected by an injury caused by their working conditions and as a result develop medical conditions that alter their lives. If this has happened to you then you may be eligible to make a claim for compensation against your current or previous employer.

Issues related to noise are one of the biggest areas of Industrial Disease conditions and these can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss, acoustic trauma and tinnitus. Below is a brief summary explanation of each of these areas. For further information,or if oyu think you may be suffering fomr any of the conditions,  you should seek medical advice.

Temporary  Hearing Loss

Temporary hearing loss is experienced after long periods of exposure to loud noise and will occur normally for several hours following being in the noisy area. This hearing loss will not usually get any worse after this period of time and the sound can seem muffled or dull. You may also find it hard hearing people and you may have to increase the volume on your TV or radio to compensate for this.

If this is the case, once sat in a quiet room for a period of time, the hearing generally returns back to normal. However, if this exposure is continued over a period of time or you do not allow the hearing to recover before exposure again, then the condition may become irreversible developing into a permanent hearing loss.

Acoustic Trauma

Acoustic trauma occurs as a result of a very loud noise or several very loud noises occurring for a short period of time. Someone with acoustic trauma may have developed the condition after hearing an explosion in a work accident or gunfire at close range and without ear protection.

Hearing loss that results from acoustic trauma is usually sensor neural hearing loss, which means that it either affects the sense organ of hearing or the neural pathways that lead to this organ. In most cases it is irreversible.

As well as hearing loss, severe acoustic trauma can lead to serious damage to physical structures in the ear, causing injuries such as a perforated eardrum

Tinnitus

Tinnitus is the hearing of noises in the ears which can sound like ringing, buzzing, hissing, whistling or roaring. It can occur suddenly or over a period of time and while many cases of tinnitus are temporary, some are permanent.

When related to industrial deafness (it can also be the result of other medical conditions) tinnitus can be one of the first signs that damage has been done to the ear and is often a pre-cursor to permanent hearing loss.