HUNDREDS of former BAT workers in Southampton may be able to claim thousands of pounds of compensation for damage to their hearing, according to lawyers.

Workers from a former Southampton cigarette factory are being urged to come forward amid claims their hearing may have been damaged in the workplace.

They may be entitled to compensation of between £3,000 and £26,000.

BAT strongly refutes the claims, saying that the company provided above-adequate hearing protection throughout its Southampton factory, which closed in 2005 with the loss of about 500 jobs.

Sheffield-based solicitors Wake Smith and Tofields are now representing more than 200 staff across the country whose hearing has been affected while working in the cigarette and cigar-making industry.

Since an article was published in the Daily Echo, they have been deluged with calls from Southampton workers who fear their hearing may have been affected.

Many report loss of hearing or tinnitus, a distressing condition where sufferers hear a persistent ringing noise.

Wake Smith and Tofields' occupational illnesses team leader Chris Fry said: "We seem to be getting phone calls every day. It might be that there's a group out there of about 100 people, and we think that is the tip of the iceberg. It could be several hundred people. I wouldn't be surprised."

He is urging former workers to get their hearing checked, because he says many won't realise how much hearing they have lost or connect it with machinery they operated decades ago.

"It's not like having a broken leg where you know what caused it and where and when it happened. It creeps up on you.

"Industrial deafness only affects higher frequencies. Many sufferers will have been told by their wives to stop ignoring them, or they will have missed bits of what their grandchildren have said. They will have noticed that they have to have the TV up loud.

"Women's voices, children's voices and things like birdsong will be harder to hear. It's those sounds which are at a higher pitch and frequency. Men speak at a lower frequency with more bass and will be easier to hear.

"Lots of people are calling because they have been nagged by their wives. They say 'I'm not sure if there's anything wrong, but my wife has insisted I get something done.

"The damage at the time would have gone unnoticed until age-associated hearing loss kicked in. Someone 25 years old wouldn't notice until they were 50 or 60 years old.

"At that stage you go from gradual mild hearing loss, with a lump sum of damage on top. People are often surprised to find out that the reason they are struggling is a machine they used 20 or 30 years earlier."

He says he can help get sufferers fitted with cutting-edge digital hearing aids to restore their quality of life. While BAT did have systems in place, the numbers of people contacting him with hearing problems suggests something went wrong, he claims.

Mr Fry said BAT was "in many ways a fantastic employer" but alleged that hearing protection seemed to have been a low priority at a time when the Southampton site was turning out 25 billion cigarettes a year - a claim strongly refuted by the company.

People who worked on or near the Panda conveyors, quality control sieves, rippers and making machines in the primary processing and cigarette making locations are most likely to have noise damage, said Mr Fry.

In a statement BAT said: "We have, and always will, view our duty of care for our employees as one of our highest priorities, and noise pollution is no exception.

"In fact, our internal guidelines for noise protection at our cigarette manufacturing operation in Southampton for many years exceeded those set out by the Health and Safety Executive.

"All of our employees working in our manufacturing operation were provided with hearing protection equipment and all areas where hearing protection was mandatory were clearly marked.

"Ear plug dispensers were located in all entrance routes to designated areas and formed part of regular internal audit checks.

"All of our employees received information on noise and hearing protection upon joining the company and were provided with refresher training sessions on a regular basis.

"We also undertook regular health monitoring which offered hearing tests every one to two years for our employees working in high noise level areas.

"We also ensured that regular noise surveys were carried out in all areas of our manufacturing operation and, in addition to this, monitored levels of environmental noise monitoring across the entire Southampton site."

Wake Smith and Tofields can be contacted on 0114 2666660.