It is no wonder that so many of us often
don’t give much thought to what we are
hearing when caught up in the minutiae
of our daily duties. Our ears are subject
to a constant hum of background sound,
mostly at a safe volume which won’t
aff ect our hearing. However, few people
consider that regular exposure to high
volumes of sound may exacerbate the
natural process of hearing loss caused by
age. This is especially relevant to pump
engineers, who must be acutely aware of
the dangers they face; engineering is
one of the sectors in which noiseinduced
hearing loss (NIHL), or industrial
deafness as it is also known, is most
prevalent.