Posted By Martin H We have just introduced a new mandatory ear protection area. One employee who works in the area is profoundly deaf, and chooses not to wear any hearing aids as he says it has no benefit. He does, however, suffer from increased pressure if he wears ear defenders or earplugs. Given that there is no apparent risk to his hearing by not wearing the mandatory ear protection, would it be advisable to have write some form of "exemption" document that he could sign?

Posted By Ian Futcher Your employee may state he is "deaf" but he will have some level of hearing at some frequencies? (Audio-metric test will reveal the level of impairment). If he has any response in the Audio-test, you will have a greater responsibility to protect the little level of hearing he possesses. He (even more than other employees) should wear hearing protection, in my opinion. Ian

Posted By Juan Carlos Arias Agree with previous posts, I would also like to say that if once you have ascertained that in fact ear protection will not provide any benefits given his condition and that he indeed is affected in other ways by wearing ear protection, if I were you, rather than allowing him to be in the ear protection area and having to start introducing exemptions into your policy. I would try to re-allocate him into another area. Having him in the protection area whilst not wearing the PPE, will send a negative impression to the rest of the workforce, therefore, making a bad impact on your company H&S culture. this is only my personal opinion,

Posted By Gary123 A person who is classed as "profoundly deaf" can still hear sounds that are above 95dB therefore an employer has a duty to prevent further damage. Gary

Posted By GeoffB4 'All' persons who are classified as profoundly deaf can hear frequencies above 95dB?