RICHMOND, B.C. – Construction workers under the age of 21 are less likely to wear hearing protection on the job than are those of any other age group in British Columbia, say new statistics from the province’s occupational health and safety authority. According to data that WorkSafeBC released on Feb. 23, nearly one-quarter of surveyed B.C. construction workers under 21 years old reported not wearing hearing protection in 2016, as opposed to 13 per cent of workers older than 50 and 11 per cent of workers aged from 21 to 50. Young workers in construction are also less likely to wear hearing protection than young workers in other industries that require it, WorkSafeBC stated in a news release, adding that the organization had accepted more than 37,000 workers’ compensation claims for noise-induced hearing loss since 2006. “Noise-induced hearing loss… can be caused by a single exposure to loud noise or, more typically, by repeated exposures to consistent noise. While the damage may be painless, it is irreversible and may go unnoticed for years,” WorkSafeBC occupational audiologist Sasha Brown said in a press statement. “We want to raise the level of awareness among employers of the prevalence and seriousness of this occupational disease.” WorkSafeBC collected its latest data from more than 160,000 hearing tests that B.C. employers conducted last year.