Hundreds of soldiers returning home from Afghanistan are suffering severe and permanent hearing damage caused by intense battlefield noise, it has been reported.
Roadside bombs, close-combat clashes and the sound of coalition aircraft have caused problems ranging from tinnitus to total deafness, according to The Times.
The newspaper made a series of freedom of information requests to unearth the extent of the problem.
It found that in the Grenadier Guards, 37 out of 411 soldiers have severe hearing problems.
In the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglians, which returned from a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan last October, nearly 240 out of 691 soldiers suffered hearing difficulties.
As many as 35 were categorised as either undeployable or with limited deployment potential.
In The 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters), which also returned last October, 34 out of 555 soldiers had hearing problems.
Two Royal Marine commando units have also reported hearing defects.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The MoD takes the issue of noise induced hearing loss seriously and although the majority of hearing impairment cases cannot be directly attributed to deployment we are continually looking at ways of monitoring and mitigating the risk in operational scenarios.
"We have issued an improved double-ended ear plug to all deploying troops to protect against impulse or steady state noise, and the Surgeon General is establishing a defence-wide noise induced hearing loss working group to develop a robust defence hearing programme."
