Missouri Revised Statutes

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 287.197 (2026)

Occupational deafness

✓ current as of May 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MO-REVrevisor.mo.gov Justiaon Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

287.197. Occupational deafness — tests, claims, awards, liability of employer, effect of hearing aid. — 1. Losses of hearing due to industrial noise for compensation purposes shall be confined to the frequencies of five hundred, one thousand, and two thousand cycles per second. Loss of hearing ability for frequency tones above two thousand cycles per second are not to be considered as constituting disability for hearing.

2. The percent of hearing loss, for purposes of the determination of compensation claims for occupational deafness, shall be calculated as the average, in decibels, of the thresholds of hearing for the frequencies of five hundred, one thousand, and two thousand cycles per second. Pure tone air conduction audiometric instruments, approved by nationally recognized authorities in this field, shall be used for measuring hearing loss. If the losses of hearing average twenty-six decibels or less in the three frequencies, such losses of hearing shall not then constitute any compensable hearing disability. If the losses of hearing average ninety-two decibels or more in the three frequencies, then the same shall constitute and be total or one hundred percent compensable hearing loss. The decibel standards established by this subsection are based on the most current ANSI occupational hearing loss standard. The division shall, by rule, adopt any superseding ANSI occupational hearing loss standards regarding testing frequencies and decibel standards for measuring hearing loss.

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

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

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

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

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

8. An employer shall become liable for the entire occupational deafness to which his employment has contributed; but if previous deafness is established by a hearing test or by other competent evidence, whether or not the employee was exposed to noise within one month 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.

9. 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.

--------

(L. 1959 S.B. 167 § 287.202, A.L. 1967 p. 390, A.L. 1998 H.B. 1237, et al., A.L. 2005 S.B. 1 & 130)

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 9 cases, 1994–2019 · leading case: Phillip Guinn, Claimant-appellant v. Treasurer of the State of Missouri as Custodian of the Second Injury Fund, Respondent-respondent, 577 S.W.3d 847 (Mo. Ct. App. 2019).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Phillip Guinn, Claimant-appellant v. Treasurer of the State of Missouri as Custodian of the Second Injury Fund, Respondent-respondent, 577 S.W.3d 847 (Mo. Ct. App. 2019). · cites it 9× “430 shall not begin to run in cases of occupational disease until it becomes reasonably discoverable and apparent that an injury has been sustained related to such exposure, except that in cases of loss of hearing due to industrial noise said limitation shall not begin to run…”

Miller v. U.S. Airways Grp., Inc., 316 S.W.3d 462 (Mo. Ct. App. 2010). · cites it 8× “430 shall not begin to run in cases of occupational disease until it becomes reasonably discoverable and apparent that a compensable injury has been sustained, except that in cases of loss of hearing due to industrial noise said limitation shall not begin to run until the…”

Thatcher v. Trans World Airlines, 69 S.W.3d 533 (Mo. Ct. App. 2002). · cites it 7× “Points on Appeal In its first point on appeal, TWA argues that the Commission erred in calculating the extent of Thatcher’s compensable hearing loss under § 287.197. TWA argues that the Commission misinterpreted the phrase “lowest measured loss” to mean greatest hearing loss,…”

Lawrence v. Anheuser Busch Companies, Inc., 310 S.W.3d 248 (Mo. Ct. App. 2010). · cites it 4× “430 shall not begin to run in cases of occupational disease until it becomes reasonably discoverable and ap *251 parent that an injury has been sustained related to such exposure, except that in cases of loss of hearing due to industrial noise said limitation shall not begin to…”

Lisa Cook, Claimant-respondent v. Missouri High. & Transp. Comm'n, Emp.-appellant., 500 S.W.3d 917 (Mo. Ct. App. 2016). · cites it 3× “See § 287.197 RSMo (1959). 6 . Even at that point, however, Claimant was told by Dr.”

State Ex Rel. KCP & L Greater Missouri Operations Co. v. Cook, 353 S.W.3d 14 (Mo. Ct. App. 2011). · cites it 2× “070 (recognizing occupational diseases related to cleanup of illegal drug laboratories); § 287.197 (providing for compensability for hearing loss due to industrial noise); § 287.”

David Hogenmiller v. Mississippi Lime Co., 574 S.W.3d 333 (Mo. Ct. App. 2019). · cites it 2× “063 and not § 287.197 because § 287.197 only applies to occupational deafness.”

Kersey v. Autry Morlan, Inc., 388 S.W.3d 644 (Mo. Ct. App. 2013). · cites it 8× “Traumatic hearing- loss “shall be measured as prescribed in section 287.197, RSMo and this rule.” 8 CSR 50-5.”

Poehlein v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 891 S.W.2d 505 (Mo. Ct. App. 1994). “” RSMo § 287.197 (1986) addresses the testing and rating guidelines for occupational deafness.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.