If you work with heavy machinery, damage to your hearing is an obvious hazard, but what if you work in a busy pub?

Service industry workers are not immune to the risk of hearing loss and Worksafe BC is getting the word out to employers of the dangers.

Director of prevention services Dan Strand points out how easily it can become a problem. “If you have to raise your voice above the din or the noise in the environment to speak or communicate with someone at a distance of about one metre, you’re likely in the range that you’re up around eighty decibels or more, so beyond that there is a risk of that noise creating a hearing loss.”

He calls workplace hearing loss highly preventable adding hearing loss claims have hit 27-thousand in BC with millions being spent on hearing protection.