Noise induced hearing loss is still an issue. This reform of duty of care standards will bring more people within the claimant population. Poor understanding in the courts risks providing compensation for trivial harm.
Given that exposure measurement is also subject to considerable uncertainty, a Duty to ensure exposure (with hearing protection) is less than 85 dB(A) would seem to be in accord with the requirements of civil liability (for the 50 year old male manual worker). That is, exposure below this value would not be shown to have on the balance of probabilities, contributed to measured HTLs.
Evidence from:
andrew@reliabilityoxford.co.uk
A full description of the noise Directive its strengths and weaknesses.
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