Hearing Damage and Annoyance From Clay Pigeon Shooting

A surve of heari dama e amon st.ersons who fire shot uns Identifying groups of people who have, over a number of years, been exposed to high levels of short duration impulsive noise presents some difficulties.Constabulary firearm instructors are possible subjects and although when _ approached in 1979 many helpful replies were received from Chief Constables, .including a number of audiometric records, the history of exposure was varied and difficult to establish.Many instructors had undergone military training or were members of shooting clubs etc., and in recent years whilst employed as constabulary instructors, were meticulously careful about wearing hearing protection.Use of hearing protection is also widespread amongst competitors in clay pigeon shooting competitions, and recent unprotected exposure amongst serious CPSA competitors is unlikely.Gamekeepers.farmers and game shooters however are less likely to protect their hearing, and in 1980 an opportunity arose to carry out audiometric tests on a number of such people.A clay pigeon shooting competition was organised at the principle agricultural shows for gamekeepers and others who use 'side by side' shotguns rather than for serious clay shooting competitors, who usually use 'over and under' guns.In order to promote the use of hearing protectioncompetitors attending the Three Counties Show, the Royal Show and the Game Fair were invited to have their hearing tested, and a questionnaire was completed to ascertain their suitability for inclusion in the survey and to estimate their history of exposure, in terms of years and number of shots per year.' Hearing tests were carried out in a caravan, using a Kampex Model 3A2, Bekesy Audiometer.No attempt was made to isolate the subjects from intrusive noise, other than using a noise excluding head set, and there is evidence of masking