One of the fairly common issues in a noise assessment concerns people who wear hearing aids but who also work in a high noise area so fall into the requirements for hearing protection to be worn.

A common recommendation I have seen from Occupational Health Physicians has been ‘recommend wear double hearing protection’. What they are saying is that they recommend the person concerned wears two sets of hearing protection, usually a plug and a muff over the top, but to be honest, it is nonsense and usually has no link to the findings of the noise assessment.

A need for hearing protection is a common outcome of a noise assessment or a noise survey but how do you choose the right hearing protection for your noise risk, especially as 'strongest is best' is usually not the case.

In a noise assessment, it is common to hear a comment along the lines of ‘we’ve given them hearing protection and told them to wear it, so what else can we do’, but that is not the end of the employer’s obligations for hearing protection.

Often people offer to sign a disclaimer saying they accept the risk of hearing damage from not wearing protection, or they produce a letter from a doctor saying they do not have to wear it, but both are no good.

There is no exemption from the need to wear hearing protection for forklift drivers. High noise will have the same impact on them as on any other person. Their hearing will still be damaged by noise.

Can wearing ear plugs cause tinnitus when worn all day in a factory?

Sometimes people will say using ear plugs causes them to get ear infections, but do ear plugs actually cause infections? Short answer, no. Dirty hands putting them in, that can cause an infection, but not the plugs themselves.

Can someone use noise cancelling headphones in place of hearing protection in a high noise environment? Short answer is no, not if there is a noise risk as they are not certified as hearing protection.

Over-protection often comes from well-meaning employers buying the strongest hearing protection they can find - hearing protection with the highest SNR. They mean well but it often actually increases risk and for the employer, means more of the money they spend on hearing protection is wasted.

Most foam ear plugs are single-use and should not be reused, meaning worn, taken out and then put back in again. To check the effectiveness of reusing ear plugs I did hearing tests while wearing brand new and worn ear plugs and the results confirmed it, disposable ear plugs should only be worn once.