Industrial Responsibility to Tinnitus

[LarryL]

My name is Larry L. And I have tinnitus, a high pitched ringing. I first really realized there was an issue shortly after retiring 15 years ago. I worked in an extremely high noise environment 93.5 to 105 decibel for about 10 years. Because I wore earplugs most of the time at work my employer and the compensation board will not accept the fact that some of the responsibility should be on their shoulders. Are there any surveys showing information that could help ie... Is high pitched tinnitus related to what I did, is low pitched tinnitus related to a different activity? Are there many NIHL claims accepted or turned down? Any information would help. Thanks

 

[Atlantis]

I worked in an extremely high noise environment 93.5 to 105 decibel for about 10 years. Because I wore earplugs most of the time at work my employer and the compensation board will not accept the fact that some of the responsibility should be on their shoulders.

You wore earplugs, which made the sound level safe. There is no way you can get compensation for that.

 

[Nucleo]

I assume you were wearing the standard 33 NRR orange foam ear plugs. In a 100 dB environnment they are more than safe enough. They provided you the necessary protection so I doubt they can be at fault.

Beside there is no way to prove what caused your tinnitus exactly unless the cause is an obvious trauma.

 

[LarryL]

Earplugs won't protect you at 105 decibels . Canadian laws limit the time in that environment, and we of course worked an 8 hour day. I believe industry should be accountable.

 

[Alue]

I just had a noise related incident at work that triggered my T. It was a single burst of noise. There are ear plugs provided in areas where high noise is expected and I wear them, but this was in an area where high noise level was not expected and in an unusual circumstance. (there were no signs, no warnings in the SOP etc.).

I'm not sure where I would stand and if it's even worth pursuing. I'm still waiting to see if it goes away on it's own as it was very recent. I just want the T to go away or at least go down, that's my main focus right now. More than that, I'm not even sure what the decibel level was and because of other factors it would be hard to reproduce.

As a little side note to ear plugs, I somewhat disagree with the one size fits all noise reduction rating. It depends on how it's used, and even more the size of a person's ear canal. If a person has a larger sized ear canal they may not get the same level protection if the ear plug is too small. Yes, maybe they work for *most people* and the average ear canal size, but those with large or irregular shaped ear canals may not be getting the advertised protection level.

 

[LarryL]

Are there many cases where the cause of tinnitus is a specific incident as opposed to a long term exposure to noise? Percentage wise?

 

[Nucleo]

I'm not sure where I would stand and if it's even worth pursuing. I'm still waiting to see if it goes away on it's own as it was very recent. I just want the T to go away or at least go down, that's my main focus right now. More than that, I'm not even sure what the decibel level was and because of other factors it would be hard to reproduce.

Don't wait. Plenty of people here, myself included did the wait and see approach. It is not very successful in making tinnitus go away. Look into getting in the AM-101 trial. http://tinnitus-study.info