PUBLIC INSURANCE FOR NOISE-INDUCED HEARING LOSS

摘要

Hearing loss due to extended noise exposure is still an important issue, in spite of the new legislation and the greater public awareness, which have brought about an improvement in the behaviour of employers through the adoption of progressive preventive and protective measures. In these last few years, the "acoustic climate" in our living environment has deteriorated, introducing an important confounder that makes occupational hearing loss assessment extremely complicated. This paper illustrates the different aspects of noise-related risk analysis and the insurance assessment procedure in occupational hearing loss. The procedure includes the following steps: - The risk assessment of occupational hearing loss; -The medical legal assessment, including the clinical diagnosis, the causal relationship with working conditions and the compensation to be paid. Over the last few years, progress has been made in legislation and technical equipment and more accurate instruments are now available for risk assessment, together with more detailed technical regulations and more specific predictive models. This paper provides an overview of the current situation, putting the emphasis on a number of critical issues.