HSE figures estimate that around 12,000 workers each year suffer hearing loss caused or made worse by work

 

Workspace hazard wearables company spacebands has secured an additional £1.1million in funding to accelerate its mission to prevent workplace accidents and reduce the risk of long-term occupational health conditions.

 

spacebands designs wearable technology that helps organisations prevent workplace injuries and long-term health conditions by monitoring exposure to hazards such as noise and hand–arm vibration. Its devices alert workers in real time and provide health and safety teams with clear data to help prevent problems before they arise.

 

The funding will be used to further enhance spacebands’ wrist-worn wearables and continue developing its online analytics platform, helping employers identify harmful exposure earlier and intervene before injuries become irreversible.

 

New data from the Health and Safety Executive highlights the scale of preventable harm still occurring across UK workplaces. The HSE estimates that around 12,000 workers each year suffer hearing loss caused or made worse by work, while millions remain exposed to hazardous noise levels[1]. Conditions such as noise-induced hearing loss and hand-arm vibration syndrome develop gradually and silently, often going unnoticed until workers face lifelong impairment, time away from work, or legal claims. Unlike acute accidents, these injuries develop gradually over time and are often missed by traditional assessments or static monitoring and by the time symptoms appear, the damage is often permanent.

 

spacebands is designed to close that gap. Its wrist-worn devices monitor personal exposure to hazards such as vibration and noise in real time, alerting workers as risk builds and creating a clear data record for health and safety teams. This allows organisations to act early by rotating tasks, adjusting tooling, or changing processes before exposure reaches dangerous levels.

 

The technology is already being deployed by some of the UK’s largest and most safety-critical organisations, including Network Rail, M Group Highways, Kier Group and Balfour Beatty, where managing long-term exposure risk is both a legal requirement and a moral imperative.

 

Ronan Finnegan, co-founder of spacebands, said: “Too many workers only discover the impact of noise or vibration exposure years after the damage is done. By then, it’s too late. This funding allows us to keep building tools that help employers see risk as it develops, not after the harm has already occurred. Prevention has to happen in real time, on the person, not retrospectively in a report.”

 

The new funding will also support a new cutting-edge device pioneered by direct engagement with health and safety professionals. As organisations face increasing regulatory scrutiny and rising costs linked to occupational ill health which costs the UK economy tens of billions of pounds each year[2] demand is growing for solutions that move beyond compliance paperwork to real-world control.

 

Ronan added: “spacebands was founded on the belief that better data leads to better decisions and safer outcomes. By giving employers visibility of exposure that has historically gone unmeasured, the company aims to reduce avoidable harm, protect workers’ long-term health, and help organisations demonstrate effective control of risk.”

 

For more information, visit www.spacebands.com