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Occupational Asthma

If you or a member of your family is suffering from occupational asthma due to the negligence of your employer or another party, it is possible that our specialist personal injury lawyers could help you to claim compensation. Contact us today on 0800 032 8511 for claim advice, or by completing a claim enquiry form.

What is Occupational Asthma?
Causes of Work Related Asthma
Claiming Compensation
Occupational Asthma Compensation
Help With Your Claim

What is Occupational Asthma?

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory condition that affects the airways. It can develop following exposure to an irritant which causes the airways to react and constrict and leads to breathing difficulties. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath and tightness in the chest. Around 10 percent of asthma cases in adult sufferers can be attributed to working conditions.

Occupational asthma is caused by exposure to irritants in the workplace. This can be an aggravation of pre-existing or underlying asthma resulting in irritant asthma where the irritant causes an immediate reaction..

Repeated exposure to a substance can make the sufferer much more sensitive and cause attacks

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Causes of Work Related Asthma

There are many causes of occupational asthma, including solder fumes (colophony), latex, flour dust, isocyanates, chlorine, smoke and animals.

If inhaled on a regular basis, these irritants can cause a person to become hypersensitive. All employers are required by law to carry out a risk assessment and take suitable precautions to ensure that their staff are protected. Working practices should be made as risk-free as possible and any appropriate protective clothing and equipment should be provided.

Occupational asthma can become chronic (i.e. it continues even after exposure to the irritant has stopped) if it is left untreated for a long enough period. You should seek immediate medical advice if you believe that you have been affected.

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Claiming Compensation

Employers have a responsibility to protect their employees from exposure to health hazards. There are regulations in place which employers have to comply with known as the COSHH, or Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1988. If your employer fails to take sufficient precautions to prevent harm to you and you develop occupational asthma, you may be entitled to make an injury claim for compensation.

In every case, medical evidence will be required. Detailed expert evidence is often also required in disease cases to show that the condition suffered by a claimant was caused by exposure to a particular substance.

In any personal injury claim it is necessary to show that the person you are making a claim against owed you a duty of care, that they breached that duty of care (were negligent), and that the injury you sustained was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of that negligence. It is therefore important to seek the advice of a specialist lawyer, who can help you to pursue your claim effectively.

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Occupational Asthma Compensation

There are two elements to a compensation award. The first, called general damages, is for the pain and suffering you may have gone through and any loss of amenity (perhaps an inability to wash your car, look after your garden, walk the dog). The award for loss of amenity can be for a short period or for ever if that is what the medical evidence supports.

Whereas the first element of compensation cannot make you better and can only really apologise, the second element of a compensation award, for your losses and expenses,
is known as special damages and aims to put you back in a position financially as if the occupational asthma had never developed. It is important to keep receipts for any expenditure you have related to your condition so that these can be reclaimed.

In serious cases, where a person may no longer be able to continue their employment, this can be taken into account. Costs for care, equipment, transport and housing modifications can also be factored into the calculations. If you are still able to work but not in the same role as before an extra amount may be awarded for loss of ‘congenial employment’, particularly if you held a public service role such as a doctor or police officer. A court can also make a financial award to recognise that your prospects on the open labour market may be limited.

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Help With Your Claim

The Legal Line lawyers are specialists in all areas of personal injury and industrial disease and can therefore provide expert claim advice, guidance and assistance. If you believe that you have developed asthma as a result of exposure to irritants in your workplace, they can assist you in making a compensation claim in respect of the current and future effects that this has on your life and work.

It may also be possible to make a posthumous claim in respect of a relative that has died due to occupational asthma.

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