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Ask for the audiograms
Where your employer ran a hearing conservation program, there is a baseline audiogram and annual audiograms in your file showing exactly when your hearing shifted.
Request them in writing. Under the Cal/OSHA hearing conservation standard, 8 CCR § 5100, the employer must keep your audiometric test records for as long as you work there and noise exposure measurements for 2 years, and must provide them to current and former employees on request — so ask now, and ask even if you have already left.
And where no program was run at all, that absence is itself significant.
Understand the rating before it disappoints you
The AMA method averages four frequencies — 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 Hz — subtracts a 25-decibel low fence, multiplies the remainder by 1.5%, then weights your better ear five times more heavily than your worse one.
| Situation | Result |
|---|---|
| 25 dB average loss, both ears | 0% |
| 40 dB average loss, both ears | about 8% whole person |
| Total deafness in one ear | about 6% whole person |
| Total deafness, both ears | 35% whole person |
And the classic noise notch at 4,000–6,000 Hz — the diagnostic signature of occupational hearing loss — is not one of the four rated frequencies. Strong evidence of causation. Contributes nothing to the number.
Tinnitus may add up to 5% — but only where it accompanies measurable hearing loss and interferes with activities of daily living. Both conditions have to be documented. The full explanation.
“It’s just your age”
Age-related and noise-induced hearing loss look different on an audiogram. Presbycusis is characteristically a sloping high-frequency loss without a notch. Noise-induced loss characteristically produces a notch at 4,000–6,000 Hz with recovery at 8,000 Hz.
That distinction is visible on the test, and it is where these cases are decided.
And it is probably not too late
Under § 5412 the date of injuryDate of injury For a cumulative or occupational disease claim, the law sets it as when you first suffered disability and knew or should have known it was work-related — not when the wear began. Almost every deadline runs off this. is when you first suffered disability and knew, or should have known, it was work-related — not when the noise exposure happened.
“I stopped working in noise ten years ago” is usually not a reason the claim is late. More.
And § 5500.5 generally limits liability to the last year of injurious exposure, which determines which employer and carrier are on the claim — relevant across a long career.
Where this comes from
Specific injuries
Where the body part changes the answer.
General information about California law, not legal advice about your case.
Reviewed by Jamey Teitell, Partner & Trial Attorney · Last reviewed
Law Offices of Solov & Teitell, APC · (213) 380-9310
Printed from https://www.solovteitell.com/answers/my-hearing-is-getting-worse/ · Last reviewed