I READ about the policewoman who has been awarded half a million pounds, because she now suffers from tinnitus, apparently caused by using an earphone at work.

I worked in heavy engineering for perhaps longer than this lady has been alive and, as a legacy, I am now hard of hearing and suffer soul-destroying tinnitus, that sometimes drives me to despair. Yet, like thousands of other sufferers, I can't claim a penny. Where's the justice?

Brian Derbyshire,

Ribchester Grove, Bolton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.