Hearing, commercial diving

[bubblehead2k]

First post for me so please be kind. I'm currently serving in the Royal Navy as a Navy Diver. Been doing this for 6 years now. Anyway just had my yearly medical and I have massive high frequency lost in my left ear. 2.7khz ( any higher and I can't hear) to be exact. I was planning to put my notice in and go down the commercial route but this could change everything. What makes it worst is I didn't even know I had high frequency hearing lost. I do suffer from tinnitus but that started in Iraq. My question is what are the standards for hearing in the commercial sector ?(UK) as I've herd of commercial divers being near deaf(don't know how true that is). I've got an appointment with the doc to investigate this.

 

[DCBC]

Welcome to SB. I'm an ex-navy Diver who made the change to the commercial sector in 1980. As far as HSE is concerned, the Medical Examination and Assessment of Divers (MA1) requires that:

92 Hearing should permit understanding of normal conversation. Initial examination requires an audiometric assessment covering the range 500 Hz to 6 KHz... (http://www.hse.gov.uk/diving/ma1.pdf)

As is often the case, the recommendation resides with the Hyperbaric Physician conducting the examination. Hope this helps and again, welcome aboard!

Wayne

 

[bubblehead2k]

Thanks for the feedback. My hearing does permit me to have a normal understanding conversation but the frequency range in my left ear falls short and my right ear is fine. I've got an appointment with the doc this Friday to look at it. As you can imagine I'm a little worried as I've no idea when or how this has happened and the amount of deep dives I've done etc etc.