The story sure to dominate workforce health and safety news in 1998 will be the mushrooming of claims for noise-induced hearing loss from sectors other than the defence forces as forewarned in this column last year.

If army claims are set to cost £16 million a month, businesses like nightclubs, pubs, hotels, music shops and courier services can expect to be dragged into that legal maelstrom in the coming months. Expect businesses to go under because of it.

Mr Herbert Mulligan, editor of Health & Safety Review (HSR), says that in the last 12 months HSR highlighted the case of a retired plant-hire worker who was awarded £125,000 in the High Court for work-related hearing loss. He had taken early retirement in his mid40s and was subsequently offered another job. Only at a pre-employment medical for that job was it discovered he had suffered hearing loss in his previous employment.

Mr Tony Briscoe, head of the health and safety unit at IBEC, agrees that hearing will be a key issue and says it may not be long before employees like bouncers and bar staff in noisy pubs are seen with ear plugs.

Mr Briscoe also identifies occupational asthma and dermatitis as health and safety issues that need to be addressed in 1998.

IBEC also expects more family-friendly initiatives in the workplace in 1998. Issues like parental leave, flexible working hours, job sharing, sabbaticals and the provision of creches are likely to achieve new emphasis.

Mr Justice Kelly's chilling words following the death of Mr James Masterson last November that Zoe Developments was "not entitled to make profits on the blood and lives of workers" will continue to reverberate in the construction industry. The £100,000 "donation" by the company to charity won't have gone unnoticed either. Mr Justice Kelly has threatened to close Zoe Developments down on every site if it fails to comply with its obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Acts.

Mr Richard Wynne of the Work Research Centre in Dublin says that bullying and violence in the workplace will make the news this year. He believes the suicide of a fireman last year due to bullying at work is only "the tip of the iceberg". It seems the EU Commission is set to issue guidelines on bullying in 1998.

Mr Wynne also expects the costs and benefits of workplace health and safety to become an issue at both the political and company level. Politically, he expects the need to project costs and benefits before legislating for health and safety will arise at EU level. At company level he says health issues can be perceived as costing rather than benefiting companies. Whether health and safety is a saving or a drag on company resources will need to be addressed.

He also expects the rapid growth of atypical work forms like contract work and homebased telework to raise new health and safety questions. A fourth issue he expects to see emerge will be the older age profile of workers in Ireland compared to previous years.

Finally, he notes the increased "feminisation" of the workforce. This will continue to raise issues like the interplay between family care and work, the need for flexible work arrangements and a broader view of health in the workforce.

Ms Carmel Foley, chief executive of the Employment Equality Agency (EEA), expects the issue of bullying in the workplace to be prominent in 1998: "I expect to hear more about it given the number of queries we get. Bullying is a health and safety issue, involving psychological and physical health."

She also expects parental leave such as paternity leave to be high on the agenda and anticipates renewed concerns by women about maternity issues in the workplace.

Occupational physician, Dr Dermot Halpin, expects drug abuse at work to arise as a key issue. He says there is a new emphasis on health promotion at work as distinct from occupational health and notes that when general health is promoted productivity rises and there is less absenteeism.

Dr Christopher Dick, dean of the faculty of occupational medicine at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland, believes that mental health at work areas like stress, alcoholism and drugs in the workplace will be in the news in 1998.

A spokesman for the HSA says employers in the New Year should see health and safety as no different to any other aspect of business it, too, needs to be managed. He says: "Safety is not an optional extra it's not an option and it's not an extra. Good safety pays, poor safety costs."