Among workers age 21 or younger, a recent Worksafe BC report found only 24% are choosing to protect their ears on site.
That rate is about twice as high compared to any other construction worker age group and is higher than young workers in other industries like manufacturing and primary recourses. The data was conducted during 160,000 hearing tests in 2016, a part of hearing loss prevention program.
Worksafe BC’s Occupational Audiologist Sasha Brown could only speculate why this percentage is so high.
“I think when people are using a piece of equipment and it’s creating loud sounds they might think to put hearing protection on other people that have equipment and you’re walking through the site, you might not think about doing it.”
Whatever the reason, she feels workers need to be more aware of work hazards like this. She notes that hearing loss is permanent, and the effects stretch further than the worksite.
“The more hearing loss that one has the more isolated they become from friends and family and social situations. We really see that the more hearing loss someone has the more withdrawn they become.”
The next step is using the information to find out why construction workers aren’t protecting themselves and find a solution.
There have been more than 37,000 accepted work-related hearing loss claims in BC since 2006.