‘The diagnosis and quantification of NIHL is affected by innumerable confounding factors, which include:
(i) Constitutional issues, such as unrelated third pathologies, which can
‘replicate’ the pattern of threshold elevation as appears in NIHL cases;
(ii) Personal susceptibility to hearing damage: ‘soft and hard ears’;
(iii) The actual threshold at birth or before noise exposure, which means assumptions must be made regarding the extent of any allegedly raised threshold;
(iv) Age. Particularly how the effects of age are to be calculated and the assumptions which are valid in arriving at an approved or reliable AAHL table of estimates’
Parklane Plowden Chambers, 22nd May 2020
Source: www.parklaneplowden.co.uk
