Posted By Paul Craythorne Jonathan, You have stated that the area is noisy and that you have tried all types of ear defenders. What have you done with regard to reducing the noise at source (e.g. engineering controls) as this comes higher up the pecking order in the hierarchy of control measures? If all engineering controls have been explored and found to be not reasonably practicable what about reducing his exposure by other means (e.g. reducing the amount of time he spends at the noise source to bring his daily dose below the second action level). If ear protection is the only reasonably practicable control (and you may have to justify this to the HSE or a court of law at some point in the future) then it is difficult to see an alternative to him wearing it. Have you tried all the major manufacturers to see if there is some specialised protection available (he may not be the only person in the working world with this particular problem)? Regards, Paul Craythorne