6th March 2008
A Ticking Time-Bomb That You Might Not Notice
For a number of years now I’ve noticed how difficult it is for me to follow conversations in a noisy environment. Some times this has its advantages, at other time it’s very inconvenient. I tend to sit out PMQs these days, partly because you never learn anything new and partly because I can’t hear a thing being said. Is my hearing loss the sign of a mis-spent youth, I wonder. The RNID this week launched a campaign to get clubbers to wear ear-pugs to prevent the kind of damage that cumulative exposure can trigger.
But The Government seem curiously oblivious to the dangers as this answer reveals:
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of trends in the incidence of hearing loss in the adult population in the last 10 years. [178756]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department has made no assessments of the trends in the incidence of hearing loss in the adult population in the last 10 years
However help may be at hand in the form of the European Commission:
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, if he will bring forward proposals for a statutory maximum limitation on the permitted volume of personal MP3 players. [178774]
Mr. Thomas: The European Commission has asked the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks for an opinion on the potential health risks of exposure to noise from personal music players and mobile phones which include a music playing function. The Committee has been asked to report back to the Commission by March 2008.
We will consider whether there is any need for domestic measures following an analysis of the Scientific Committee’s report and in light of decisions taken by the Commission in respect of Community action.
It looks as if the Government (or the EU at least) are at last considering going down the same route as the French that introduced a mandatory volume limiting device on all personal stereos back in 2002. Perhaps then they can also turn down the volume in the Chamber. If that’s not noise pollution then I don’t know what is.
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