Damage to hearing from telephones

Employers are required to protect their workers from exposure to excessive noise. We can readily understand that this applies to drills, chainsaws, hammering, pneumatic impact tools, aircraft and other engines. But, surely office workers are in a safe environment. Not so. If your job involves time spent on the telephone you may be exposed to dangerous sound levels. Angry customers raising their voices are often in excess of the safety standard of 85 db. Interference on the phone can be over 110 db, and someone slamming down the phone can cause a really damaging peak sound to the listener. Our instinctive solution is to hold the earpiece away from our ear as someone begins to rage. However, this is less easy with an earphone system which leaves the hands free.
There is a solution - a device between the phone connection and the headpiece which measures the incoming sound level and limits it to safe levels. One such device may be seen on the website of a company called sennheisercommunications. Look for the Ul 700 series of devices. A set costs in the region of 8000 Baht. Expensive? So is the sense of hearing which cannot be replaced if damaged.