Occupational Hazards Resulting in Industrial Disease

Industrial diseases are illnesses that you contract as a result of long-term exposure to an occupational hazard in the workplace. The key to a successful industrial disease claim is the fact that your employer has been negligent in leaving you exposed to something that has destroyed your health and quality of life. Often through a lack of PPE or training. Examples of industrial disease include but are not restricted too:

  • Asbestosis
  • Mesothelioma
  • Secondary exposure to asbestos
  • Pleural Plaques
  • Diffuse Pleural Thickening
  • Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS)
  • Vibration White Finger (VWF)
  • Multiple System Atrophy
  • Occupational Asthma
  • Industrial Deafness
  • Benzene Exposure
  • Industrial and Fatal Work-Related Diseases
  • Contact Dermatitis
  • emphysema
  • lung cancer
  • skin cancers
  • chronic lung disease

What Factors Can Lead To An Industrial Disease?

If you have worked in heavy industries such as mining or steel mills you may have been exposed to aggressive agents such as asbestos, Epoxy resin curing agents, Flour and grain dust, Platinum salts, Proteolytic enzymes, Colophony fumes, Animals and insects in laboratories or Isocyanates.

Other triggers for industrial disease include prolonged exposure to noisy, vibrating tools and machinery or industrial processes that required you to make thousands of repetitive actions over and over again during the course of your work life.

Noise induced deafness and Tinnitus are the most common conditions caused by noisy workplaces and could affect as many as one million people in Scotland. If you have become ill or registered disabled due to disease or deafness caused by certain types of work, you may also be eligible to claim Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (diseases and deafness).

If you or someone you love has been affected by any of the above conditions, contact our specialist lawyers today, in confidence and with no obligation.

How Do You Make a Claim for an Industrial Disease?

Medical evidence can be essential to making a claim against your employer for an industrial injury. It is important to attend medical appointments and give a full account of your symptoms and injuries so that these can be added to your medical records.

You must be able to demonstrate that your employer negligently failed to meet their duty of care. An example of this could be that your employer failed to protect you from the dangers of asbestos or that they failed to provide safety equipment to protect you from noise.

Claims must be brought within three years of the injury. However, many industrial diseases take many years to develop so the strict time limit may be waived.

Sadly, in the cases of the most severe industrial injuries, employees sometimes die before they can make a claim against their employer. This can happen in cases of mesothelioma, which is a particularly aggressive form of lung cancer directly connected to asbestos exposure. In these kind of cases, it may be possible for the deceased’s family to make a claim on their behalf.

How Much Can be Claimed for an Industrial Disease?

The level of compensation depends on many different considerations. An industrial disease can vary in severity from a minor skin condition that quickly heals to terminal lung cancer. The level of compensation that can be claimed would reflect this and other factors such as the impact on the employee’s quality of life and whether medical treatment was necessary.

Our compensation calculator can help to give you an indication of the compensation that can be expected for a lung disease or loss of hearing.

Contact Our Solicitors to Start Your Claim Today

If you have suffered from an industrial disease, our trusted solicitors can help you claim compensation on a no win, no fee* basis. Call us on 01418 465 957, or make an online enquiry by completing our claim form.

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