Good afternoon, We have had our health surveillance audiometric tests recently. One of the engineers was referred for specialist appointment. The results from those tests are saying that he has noise induced hearing loss. The medical notes are saying that this is reportable by RIDDOR. I have looked everywhere and cannot find any documentation to say whether it is or not. I would say that it is not reportable. Would be grateful of any help or guidance. Many thanks.

Does the report specifically state that this is occupationally induced NIHL? If not, then there are many potential causes and my view is that you do not need to report it until and unless you reach the conclusion that his work could have caused this. If it does state 'occupational', then I would want to know on what basis they claim work related NIHL. I know that this is not my particular field, but in mine I often see 'clinical' diagnoses that state 'occupational' on the assumption, possibly based on the patient's description, that his/her work has caused the health issue. An investigation often then demonstrates that the major if not sole cause was not his workplace but domestic. Chris

L108 Appendix 5 also backs up the above statements if you need referrence Des

No need to apologise Phil, I probably was not that clear, but Table 13 & "actions and advice" & "further actions" all detail what actions should be taken upon recept of audiometry results which show high levels of hearing loss. No point in which does it mention anything to do with RIDDOR, as I say, in support of the previous statements being that RIDDOR is not applicable here. Kind regards Des

Is this the first round of audiometric testing? If it is then your tester cannot possibly say if this hearing loss was as a result of the work or not. This will only give baseline figures to mark against in future surveillance. There will be quite a few people who will have some degree of loss and it may have nothing to do with their work at all. Presumably you are doing the audiometric testing because you have already done some measuring of noise in the workplace and can see that there may be a problem?? Either way NIHL is not reportable and it makes me wonder how good your tester really is if they are handing out this kind of advice.