2013 New York Consolidated Laws
WKC - Workers' Compensation
Article 3-A - (49-AA - 49-HH) OCCUPATIONAL LOSS OF HEARING
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 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."