N.Y. Workers' Compensation Law § 49-gg: Determination of damage risk criteria and standards for the measurement of occupational loss of hearing

§ 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 deafness and being hard of hearing, 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."