Personal stereos, are they like olden day iPod's? Sorry, its Friday, back to the point, if you google 'hse use of personal stereos' then an abundance of previously discussed links/info come up, mostly relating to noise at work.

Just my opinion for what it’s worth: the pros and cons of allowing employees in manufacturing or other workplaces to use personal stereos (i.e. personal headphones or similar to listen to music or anything else from iPods, MP3 players, radios, etc) depend on a variety of aspects of their particular work environments. If users do not need to rely on being able to hear alarms, new sounds or changes in sounds to warn them of actual or potential process and/or safety problems, the wearing of headphones probably poses little or no problem. Bear in mind that many manufacturing tasks are very repetitive and boring, so being able to use personal stereos may well make such tasks more tolerable, especially if it’s not feasible to talk to other people while working. As for persons using personal stereos being able to hear fire alarms or not, the significant factor is surely the volume settings they choose and use. However, though employers can advise their employees about volume settings, it’s probably difficult if not impossible for them to check and control the volume settings chosen by users. Therefore, it’s best for employers to make a risk assessment as to whether it’s appropriate for any employees and in which areas to be permitted to use personal stereos or not.