49-gg. Determination of damage risk criteria and standards for the measurement of occupational loss of hearing. The chairman of the workers' compensation board is authorized and empowered to, and shall, appoint and consult with a committee or committees of not less than three nor more than nine outstanding expert consultants familiar with the various aspects of the problem of industrial noise and occupational loss of hearing for the purpose of developing their recommendations as to the most reliable and acceptable damage risk criteria and standards for the measurement and determination of occupational loss of hearing. Such recommendations shall include but shall not be limited to the subjects of (a) what industrial noise levels may cause occupational loss of hearing, (b) frequencies to be used in measuring industrial hearing loss, (c) the point below which there is no hearing disability and the point above which the inability to hear shall be deemed total, (d) the use of a monaural or binaural method of computing the percentage loss of hearing, (e) proper deductions for presbycusis and other non-industrial causes of hearing impairment, and (f) the number of examinations needed to evaluate industrial hearing loss and the fairest method of determining the loss from the results of successive examinations. The committee or committees of expert consultants so appointed by the chairman shall meet and confer with representatives of the workers' compensation board and with representatives of employers and employees, and shall thereafter report their findings and recommendations to the workers' compensation board. The workers' compensation board, after giving due consideration to such findings and recommendations, is authorized to adopt reasonable rules, not inconsistent with the provisions of this chapter including without limitation section forty-nine-hh of this article, and the labor law, prescribing damage risk criteria and standards for the measurement and determination of occupational loss of hearing. Pending the formulation and adoption by the workers' compensation board of such rules, claims for occupational loss of hearing shall be determined upon the basis of the tentative standards and criteria contained in the report, dated December, nineteen hundred fifty-three of the committee appointed by the workers' compensation board and entitled "Report of the Committee of Consultants on Occupational Loss of Hearing."
Last modified: February 3, 2019