Canadians vulnerable to workplace noise

Health and safety legislation is designed to protect workers from hazards, including excessive noise. However, some workers are not required to use hearing protection when exposed to loud noise and may be vulnerable to adverse outcomes, including hearing difficulties and tinnitus.

Data for 19- to 79-year-olds (n=6,571) were collected from 2012 through 2015 as part of the Canadian Health Measures Survey. People exposed to loud workplace noise were defined as those who had to raise their voices to communicate at arm's length. Vulnerable workers were defined as those who were not required to use hearing protection when working in noisy environments and who only used hearing protection sometimes, rarely or never.

An estimated 11 million Canadians (43%) have worked in noisy environments, and over 6 million of them (56%) were classified as vulnerable to workplace noise. Although the percentage of vulnerable women (72%) was greater than that of men (48%), men outnumbered women in these circumstances at 3.7 million, compared with 2.4 million. The self-employed were more likely than employees to be vulnerable, as were those in white-collar versus blue-collar occupations. Vulnerable workers were more likely to report hearing difficulties and tinnitus than those who had never worked in a noisy environment.

A large percentage of workers exposed to noisy workplaces were vulnerable because hearing protection was neither required nor routinely used. Further work is required to assess whether this reflects gaps in health and safety legislation or its implementation.