Our Vision

Our focus is on preventable causes of hearing loss and hearing health impact through common sense, cost effective, evidenced solutions.
The group represents respected, informed and influential leaders in the field of noise, acoustics, health and hearing who can be trusted to provide independent, evidence based advice and leadership in the area of hearing conservation.

We aim to

  • Be a credible, independent source of information, knowledge and advice providing practical advice and solutions to common workplace and public health noise problems.
  • Be a force for influencing key stakeholders to shift attitudes and actions around noise and hearing loss by raising awareness and education
  • Provide leadership in hearing conservation and influence others to take notice and make positive changes to ‘buy quiet’ ‘turn it down’ and ‘conserve hearing’
  • Provide evidence and identify gaps in understanding to steer future research and innovation
  • Provide a forum for like-minded professionals to share ideas, collaborate and press for change
  • To serve as an independent reputable forum for review and debate of emerging guidance, standards and regulation in this field

 

The UK Hearing Conservation Association aims to be a credible, independent source of information, providing practical advice and solutions to common noise and hearing problems inside and outside the workplace.

Hearing loss currently affects 11 million people in the UK. The problem is growing; it’s anticipated that by 2035 there will be 15.6 million people in the UK with some form of hearing loss.

The UK Hearing Conservation Association (UKHCA) was officially set up in early 2019 and we are made up of many different members who all have one thing in common; protecting hearing health from preventable causes, particularly excessive noise.Our members range from audiologists, acoustic engineers, music professionals, hearing protection manufacturers and suppliers, occupational hygienists, health and safety professionals and other professional bodies and charitable associations. We currently stand at 30+ founding member and this number is growing all the time as we plan to extend our membership to reach all interested parties.

We have 4 current active Special Interest Groups based around the 4 key pillars of our programme. These groups will raise awareness, provide influence and interest in hearing conservation, will signpost to good practice and/or be the voice of best practice and where relevant will identify and fill gaps in the knowledge base.

Hearing Conservation At Work – to source best practice advice and key messages for industry to prevent exposure to harmful noise and raise awareness of noise as a health risk.

Hearing Conservation in Music & Entertainment – to deliver a ‘Hear for Tomorrow’ Symposium in March 2021 to raise awareness and influence change in the music and entertainment industry.

Hearing Conservation at Leisure – to source best practice advice and key messages for individuals to protect themselves from exposure to harmful noise and raise awareness of noise as a health risk

Another work will be progress to support hearing conservation in the military and hearing conservation in design as further key priority areas for making a difference in hearing conservation

Hearing Conservation in Educating Young People – to develop or source motivational and educational materials for young people to have a healthier relationship with sound.

Meet our Directors

Clare Forshaw

Founder and Director of the UKHCA

Clare has had a long-held passion for changing attitudes to noise and hearing and has spent years feeling frustrated by the lack of progress and innovation in the field of hearing conservation. It was Clare’s idea to emulate the successful National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) model from the US and bring together similar minded and passionate people to make a difference. The NHCA are wholly supportive of our effort in the UK!

She has been actively involved in progressing the knowledge base and promoting best practice in noise control, health surveillance and improving the profile of noise risk for most of her career. She pioneered UK research on a novel alternative to pure tone audiometry, organised and hosted the first UK Hearing Conservation Conference in 2016 and more recently chaired the NHS England Action Plan on Hearing Loss Prevention Working Group.

Clare lives in the North West with her family, she likes to keep herself fit in order to balance life with a penchant for food and drink!

Neil Mcintosh

Director and Scottish representative for the UKHCA

Neil has worked in the field of hearing conservation for most of his working life and when asked was extremely keen to become involved in the growing of a United Kingdom based hearing conservation association so that a national voice could be heard.

As the Managing Director of one of the countries leading custom ear protection manufacturers and a registered audiologist he brings knowledge and experience to the issues and barriers encountered when discussing hearing protection with industry leaders. He is keen to plug the gap between the requirement of the HSE and the reality of PPE supply.  Having a wife ,three children, two cats and a dog Neil believes he is ideally placed to recognise the extremes of noise. His wife is also a member of the Institute of Acoustics so taking work home is an accepted work hazard. He specialises in the recommendations and the solutions used to protect working staff from the dangers of exposure and he brings this knowledge to his dealings with the organisation.

When not at work Neil is a keen football fan, writer and classic car enthusiast. He also holds the 30 meter swimming badge and was employee of the month at the Dunnikier Estate mini golf August 1988 and Kerby champion Dalmahoy Crescent July 78

Stephen Wheatley

Director of the UKHCA

As a long-term tinnitus sufferer (from 50 years of motor cycling) with poor hearing (a combination of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and shooting) Stephen is committed to making people aware of, and reducing the risks of, avoidable hearing loss.

He helped to co-found LimitEar/HearAngel in 2010 which has gone on to develop class leading devices that protect the hearing of occupational headphone users at work and software that provides recreational headphone users with exposure information and automatic safeguarding if they wish.

He is a Founder Director/Trustee of The UK Hearing Conservation Association, committee member of the World Health Organisations Make Listening Safe campaign and contributor to both the ITU/WHO and CENELEC safety standards groups.

Stephen is married, with three grown up children and three grand-children, volunteer RNLI lifeboat crew member and keen cyclist.

Dr. David Greenberg

Director of the UKHCA

Prior to developing and launching the world’s first smart ear defenders at Eave, Dr. Greenberg was an NHS clinical and research audiologist, taught Hearing Science at the UCL Medical School and School of Audiology and received a PhD in Auditory Neuroscience for his published work on the neural mechanisms underlying hearing, deafness and communication. Dr Greenberg is a Trustee of the British Society of Audiology, DeafKidz International and the UK Hearing Conservation Association and believes that prevention is better than cure.

Alex Wilson

Director of UKHCA and Honorary Secretary of the BOHS

 Alex is a passionate occupational hygienist who has 17 years’ experience in the field working in the steel, chemical and aerospace / power systems sectors. His current role as Group Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Health Manager at Johnson Matthey gives him a wide supporting role assisting the businesses in implementing good health risk management practice throughout the approx.. 40k strong population through working in the Group EHS department. Workplace noise and noise control have been an interest to Alex ever since his university degree.

His role on the board of the UKHCA is to support the workplace aspects of hearing conservation and also represent the BOHS who are one of the founding members of the association. As technology improves there are so many ways we can look at reducing noise at source and increase the awareness so everyone can hear the right message about protecting and more importantly preventing hearing loss.

How we are funded

We are currently funded through contributions from our founding member organisations. If you would like to donate to our cause or discuss further please contact us

Our Association is established on the support, ambition and combined passion of our Founding members