Throughout this summer's FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the vuvuzela horn has garnered nearly as much attention as the actual soccer being played.
The Vuvuzela horn is a traditional South Afrcican instrument that has been adopted by fans from all over the world attending the World Cup. However, because of it's droning, bee like noise it has been the target of many complaints from television viewers of the competition world wide. So much so in fact that some broadcasters are considering offering vuvuzela free feeds of the games.
What does all this have to do with personal injury, you may ask?
Well, exposure to the use of thousands of these vuvuzela horns can cause permanent ear damage and so the workers at football stadiums where the World Cup games are being played may have personal injury claims if they suffer hearing damage because of exposure to the droning vuvuzelas.
Much like employees at concert venues, night clubs and other places where workers are exposed to loud noises, if the workers at these soccer stadiums are not protected by their employers from exposure to the 100 plus decibel sound of the vuvuzela, they may be entitled to make a personal injury compensation claim.
This could become a very serious matter and a much more widespread one at soccer stadiums around the world as the horns have become available in countries like England and will be brought home by fans from the World Cup, meaning that stadium owners all over the world will have to take the necessary steps to ensure that their employees don't suffer hearing damage from exposure to the sound of thousands of vuvuzelas.
If the stadium owners do not take the proper precautions in protecting the stadium employees, they may be at risk of being sued for personal injury compensation. Their teams performance at the World Cup could become far less important to them if these issues were to arise!