NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1971 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 1108

SENATE BILL 674

 

 

AN ACT TO AMEND G.S. 97-53 RELATING TO COMPENSATION FOR OCCUPATIONAL DEAFNESS.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 97-53 is hereby amended by adding a new subsection at the end of such section as follows:

"(28)    Loss of hearing caused by harmful noise in the employment. The following rules shall be applicable in determining eligibility for compensation and the period during which compensation shall be payable:

(a)        The term 'harmful noise' means sound in employment capable of producing occupational loss of hearing as hereinafter defined. Sound of an intensity of less than 90 decibels, A scale, shall be deemed incapable of producing occupational loss of hearing as defined in this section.

(b)        'Occupational loss of hearing' shall mean a permanent sensorineural loss of hearing in both ears caused by prolonged exposure to harmful noise in employment. Except in instances of pre-existing loss of hearing due to disease, trauma, or congenital deafness in one ear, no compensation shall be payable under this act unless prolonged exposure to harmful noise in employment has caused loss of hearing in both ears as hereinafter provided.

(c)        No compensation benefits shall be payable for temporary total or temporary partial disability under this act and there shall be no award for tinnitus or a psychogenic hearing loss.

(d)        An employer shall become liable for the entire occupational hearing loss to which his employment has contributed, but if previous deafness is established by a hearing test or other competent evidence, whether or not the employee was exposed to harmful noise within six months preceding such test, the employer shall not be liable for previous loss so established, nor shall he be liable for any loss for which compensation has previously been paid or awarded and the employer shall be liable only for the difference between the percent of occupational hearing loss determined as of the date of disability as herein defined and the percentage of loss established by the pre-employment and audiometric examination excluding, in any event, hearing losses arising from non-occupational causes.

(e)        In the evaluation of occupational hearing loss, only the hearing levels at the frequencies of 500, 1,000 and 2,000 cycles per second shall be considered. Hearing losses for frequencies below 500 and above 2,000 cycles per second are not to be considered as constituting compensable hearing disability.

(f)         The employer liable for the compensation in this section shall be the employer in whose employment the employee was last exposed to harmful noise in North Carolina during a period of 90 working days or parts thereof, and an exposure during a period of less than 90 working days or parts thereof shall be held not to be an injurious exposure; provided, however, that in the event an insurance carrier has been on the risk for a period of time during which an employee has been injuriously exposed to harmful noise, and if after insurance carrier goes off the risk said employee has been further exposed to harmful noise, although not exposed for 90 working days or parts thereof so as to constitute an injurious exposure, such carrier shall, nevertheless, be liable.

(g)        The percentage of hearing loss shall be calculated as the average, in decibels, of the thresholds of hearing for the frequencies of 500, 1,000 and 2,000 cycles per second. Pure tone air conduction audiometric instruments, properly calibrated according to accepted national standards such as American Standards Association, Inc., (ASA), International Standards Organization (ISO), or American National Standards Institute, Inc., (ANSI), shall be used for measuring hearing loss. If more than one audiogram is taken, the audiogram having the lowest threshold will be used to calculate occupational hearing loss. If the losses of hearing average 15 decibels (26 db if ANSI or ISO) or less in the three frequencies, such losses of hearing shall not constitute any compensable hearing disability. If the losses of hearing average 82 decibels (93 db if ANSI or ISO) or more in the three frequencies, then the same shall constitute and be total or 100% compensable hearing loss. In measuring hearing impairment, the lowest measured losses in each of the three frequencies shall be added together and divided by three to determine the average decibel loss. To allow for the average amount of hearing loss from aging and non-occupational causes found in the population at a given age, there shall be deducted, before determining the percentage of hearing impairment, from the total average decibel loss 1/2 decibel for each year of the employee's age over 38 at the time of last exposure to harmful noise. For each decibel of loss exceeding 15 decibels, (26 db if ANSI or ISO) an allowance of 1 1/2% shall be made up to the maximum of 100%, which is reached at 82 decibels (93 db if ANSI or ISO). In determining the binaural percentage of loss, the percentage of impairment in the better ear shall be multiplied by five. The resulting figure shall be added to the percentage of impairment in the poorer ear, and the sum of the two divided by six. The final percentage shall represent the binaural hearing impairment.

(h)        There shall be payable for total occupational loss of hearing in both ears 150 weeks of compensation, and for partial occupational loss of hearing in both ears such proportion of these periods of payment as such partial loss bears to total loss.

(i)         No claim for compensation for occupational hearing loss shall be filed until after six months have elapsed since exposure to harmful noise with the last employer. The last day of such exposure shall be the date of disability. The regular use of employer-provided protective devices capable of preventing loss of hearing from the particular harmful noise where the employee works shall constitute removal from exposure to such particular harmful noise.

(j)         No consideration shall be given to the question of whether or not the ability of an employee to understand speech is improved by the use of a hearing aid. The employer shall not be obligated to furnish the employee with hearing aids, including accessories and replacement, in cases of occupational hearing loss.

(k)        No compensation benefits shall be payable for loss of hearing caused by harmful noise after the effective date of this act if employee fails to regularly utilize employer-provided protection device or devices, capable of preventing loss of hearing from the particular harmful noise where the employee works."

Sec. 2.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 3.  This act shall be in full force and effect from and after October 1, 1971, and shall apply only to cases in which the last injurious exposure to harmful noise in employment was subsequent to October 1, 1971.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 21st day of July, 1971.