• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Injured Workers Online

Injured Workers Online

Working Together for Justice

  • Blog
  • Sign Up
  • About
  • Twitter
Working Together for Justice
  • Workers’ Compensation
    • History
    • Law Reform
    • Workers’ compensation bills
    • Chronic Pain Victory
    • Research and Education
    • Bancroft Institute
    • Meredith Conference: “No-Half Measures”
    • RAACWI
  • Issues
    • Appeals
    • Benefits
    • Experience Rating
    • Funding
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Return to Work
    • Stigma and surveillance
    • Universal Coverage
  • Community
    • Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG)
    • Workers’ Comp Is a Right campaign
    • Injured Worker Groups
    • IW Speakers School
    • Injured Workers’ Stories
    • Organizing and Action
    • Arts & social justice
  • Events
    • Calendar View
    • RSI Awareness Day
    • Day of Mourning
    • Justice Bike Ride
    • Injured Workers Day
    • December demo
    • Labour Day – a workers’ festival
  • Media
    • In the News
    • Press Releases
    • Fact Sheets
    • Headlines on workers’ compensation
    • Videos
  • Resources
    • Law and Policy Submissions
    • Reports, Articles & Papers
    • Practical guides & booklets
    • IWHP Bulletins
    • Library
    • Find Legal Help
    • Links
Home / Blog / Claims / Dealing with noise-induced hearing loss : the risks, the claims

Dealing with noise-induced hearing loss : the risks, the claims

January 31, 2017

A  WSIB safety campaign was recently launched to prevent noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) by raising awareness and providing useful tools to identify and reduce risks. A permanent condition, typically caused by inner ear damage from long-term exposure to hazardous noise, NIHL accounted for almost one-quarter of allowed occupational disease claims (almost 30,000 Ontario workers) between 2006 and 2015. The Board’s interactive website www.toneitdown notes that it is rarely painful, often takes years of exposure to develop, so usually isn’t noticed until years down the road (over 51% of workers were 65 years or older when diagnosed with NIHL).

Needed: adequate assessment & benefits

While prevention is obviously ideal, Ontario hearing health care Professionals Fighting for Fairness for Workers  (fair4workers.com) detail their concerns on significant compensation barriers facing those workers who have already developed noise induced hearing loss. In particular, they point to:

  • Wrongful denial of claims & reduced benefits through incorrect measurement of hearing – “for reasons of economics or a lack of understanding”, the WSIB’s inappropriate use of bone conduction, rather than air conduction thresholds, minimizes the severity of the impairment when calculating eligibility for noise induced (sensorineural) hearing loss and non-economic loss benefit (NEL) claims
  • Program cutbacks since 2004 – coverage has been stripped away over the past 8 years, culminating in the Jan. 9 2017 policy change which further caps the price limit of hearing aids (a 475% cut since 2004) and limits the products which clinicians can prescribe, meaning many technological improvements and even hearing aid styles will no longer be available to injured workers

The website includes letters for hearing health care professionals and workers & the general public outlining the issues.

Filed Under: Claims, Health Care, Occupational disease

Primary Sidebar

Latest Tweets

Injuredworkersonline Follow

IWO_org
Retweet on Twitter Injuredworkersonline Retweeted
Injured Workers A4J @iwa4justice ·
22 Mar

For International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 21 migrant injured workers called the WSIB President today to tell their stories of how the WSIB has failed them.

Diana’s message is an example of the issues these injured workers shared with the WSIB.

Reply on Twitter 1638361838105645056 Retweet on Twitter 1638361838105645056 10 Like on Twitter 1638361838105645056 15 Twitter 1638361838105645056
Injuredworkersonline @iwo_org ·
23 Mar

The evolution of blame... Now we see incident investigations that show that the worker failed to refuse the unsafe work, which makes it their fault .... https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/leadership-and-culture/the-evolution-of-blame/440347#.ZByRKaRbi98.twitter

Reply on Twitter 1638961837520609280 Retweet on Twitter 1638961837520609280 1 Like on Twitter 1638961837520609280 3 Twitter 1638961837520609280
Injuredworkersonline @iwo_org ·
15 Mar

Then & Now: Technology and the changing hazards in mining https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/technology/then-now-technology-and-the-changing-hazards-in-mining/439237#.ZBH4wPPGS2M.twitter

Reply on Twitter 1636048781316882432 Retweet on Twitter 1636048781316882432 Like on Twitter 1636048781316882432 1 Twitter 1636048781316882432
Load More...

Footer

Stay connected – get our blog updates
Copyright © 2023 Injured Workers Online
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy

The information in this website is for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for legal advice. For legal advice, see Find legal help