287.197. Occupational deafness--tests, claims, awards, liability of employer, effect of hearing aid.

MISSOURI STATUTES AND CODES

287.197. Occupational deafness--tests, claims, awards, liability of employer, effect of hearing aid.

Occupational deafness--tests, claims, awards, liability of employer,effect of hearing aid.

287.197. 1. Losses of hearing due to industrial noise for compensationpurposes shall be confined to the frequencies of five hundred, one thousand,and two thousand cycles per second. Loss of hearing ability for frequencytones above two thousand cycles per second are not to be considered asconstituting disability for hearing.

2. The percent of hearing loss, for purposes of the determination ofcompensation claims for occupational deafness, shall be calculated as theaverage, in decibels, of the thresholds of hearing for the frequencies of fivehundred, one thousand, and two thousand cycles per second. Pure tone airconduction audiometric instruments, approved by nationally recognizedauthorities in this field, shall be used for measuring hearing loss. If thelosses of hearing average twenty-six decibels or less in the threefrequencies, such losses of hearing shall not then constitute any compensablehearing disability. If the losses of hearing average ninety-two decibels ormore in the three frequencies, then the same shall constitute and be total orone hundred percent compensable hearing loss. The decibel standardsestablished by this subsection are based on the most current ANSI occupationalhearing loss standard. The division shall, by rule, adopt any supersedingANSI occupational hearing loss standards regarding testing frequencies anddecibel standards for measuring hearing loss.

3. There shall be payable as permanent partial disability for totaloccupational deafness of one ear forty-nine weeks of compensation; for totaloccupational deafness of both ears, one hundred eighty weeks of compensation;and for partial occupational deafness in one or both ears, compensation shallbe paid for such periods as are proportionate to the relation which thehearing loss bears to the amount provided in this subsection for total loss ofhearing in one or both ears, as the case may be. The amount of the hearingloss shall be reduced by the average amount of hearing loss fromnonoccupational causes found in the population at any given age, according tothe provisions hereinafter set forth.

4. In measuring hearing disability, the lowest measured losses in eachof the three frequencies shall be added together and divided by three todetermine the average decibel loss. For every decibel of loss exceedingtwenty-six decibels an allowance of one and one-half percent shall be made upto the maximum of one hundred percent which is reached at ninety-two decibels.

5. In determining the binaural (both ears) percentage of loss, thepercentage of disability in the better ear shall be multiplied by five. Theresulting figure shall be added to the percentage of disability in the poorerear and the sum of the two divided by six. The final percentage shallrepresent the binaural hearing disability.

6. Before determining the percentage of hearing disability, in order toallow for the average amount of hearing loss from nonoccupational causes foundin the population at any given age, there shall be deducted from the totalaverage decibel loss, one-half decibel for each year of the employee's ageover forty at the time of last exposure to industrial noise.

7. No claim for compensation for occupational deafness may be fileduntil after one month's separation from the type of noisy work for the lastemployer in whose employment the employee was at any time during suchemployment exposed to harmful noise, and the last day of such period ofseparation from the type of noisy work shall be the date of disability.

8. An employer shall become liable for the entire occupational deafnessto which his employment has contributed; but if previous deafness isestablished by a hearing test or by other competent evidence, whether or notthe employee was exposed to noise within one month preceding such test, theemployer shall not be liable for previous loss so established nor shall he beliable for any loss for which compensation has previously been paid orawarded.

9. No consideration shall be given to the question of whether or not theability of an employee to understand speech is improved by the use of ahearing aid.