Section 49-GG. Determination of damage risk criteria and standards for the measurement of occupational loss of hearing  


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  • 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."