Industrial Disease

The term industrial disease refers to any personal ailment related to work place conditions such as asbestos-related diseases, skin diseases, industrial deafness, tinnitus, and a whole range of respiratory diseases. Asbestos products are linked to deaths of over three thousand workers every year according to The Health and Safety Executive.
Typically, an industrial disease is either caused by the exposure to unsafe substances or due to unsafe working conditions over a long period of time. As such, a detailed investigation of the working history of an individual is often an integrated part of an industrial disease claim.

Industrial diseases are usually connected to the occupation of individuals and in most cases, the individuals are not aware of the likely impacts of their occupation. For example, working with vibrant tools may cause numbness as well as reduce the dexterity of a individual’s fingers and hands – a disease known as Vibration White Finger.

Success with an industrial disease claim is usually a matter of proving negligence on the part of the employer. However, in some cases of industrial diseases, the employers are held strictly liable and the need to prove negligence is eliminated.

Employers are supposed to get insurance against industrial disease and injury claims as they are liable to happen from time to time when employees incur injuries during work related activities and upon compliance with the requirement, they are to be issued with an Employer Liability Insurance Certificate.

Injury claims are usually bound by a time frame whereby actions should be settled or proceeding issued within three years from the time of injury. A few exceptions however apply to this general requirement especially for industrial disease compensation claims since the time between exposure to harmful materials and the actual injury may be several years. Of course the victim may have already suffered from the injury even though it is not noticeable.

In this case, the three year time stipulated starts counting as of the time when the disease is discovered. The resulting litigation in courts over issues relating to these time limits indicates why legal assistance is really necessary for the victims of industrial diseases.

Industrial disease claims are governed by the rules of compensation and there are essentially two types of damage, namely special damages and general damages. Special damage refers to damages for property whose value can be deduced accurately while general damages are damages for things whose value is difficult to determine and an assessment is rather more appropriate.