Occupational Injuries Benefit - List of Prescribed Occupational Diseases

A. Conditions due to physical agents

1. (a) Bursitis or subcutaneous cellulitis arising at or about the elbow or the knee due to severe or prolonged external friction or pressure at or about the elbow or the knee respectively ( Beat elbow or Beat knee)

Manual labour causing severe or prolonged external friction or pressure at or about the elbow or the knee respectively.

1. (b) Subcutaneous cellulitis of the hand ( Beat hand)

Manual labour causing severe or prolonged friction or pressure on the hand.

2. Byssinosis

Work in any room where any process up to and including the weaving process is performed in a factory in which the spinning or manipulation of raw or waste cotton or flax or the weaving of cotton or flax takes place

3. Carcinoma of the nasal cavity or associated air sinuses ( nasal carcinoma)

Attendance for work:

(a) in or about a building where wooden goods are manufactured or repaired, or

(b) in a building used for manufacturing footwear or components of footwear made wholly or partly of leather or fibre board

(c) at a place used wholly or mainly for repairing footwear made wholly or partly of leather or fibre board

4. Cramp of the hand or forearm due to repetitive movements

Work involving prolonged periods of handwriting, typing or other repetitive movements of the fingers, hand or arm

5. Disease or injury caused by electromagnetic or ionising radiations

Work involving exposure to electro-magnetic or ionising radiations

6. Dysbarism, including decompression sickness, barotrauma and osteonecrosis

Work involving subjection to compressed or rarefied air or other respirable gases or gaseous mixtures

7. Pneumoconiosis

See below.

8. Heat Cataract

Work involving frequent or prolonged exposure to rays from molten or redhot material

9. Miner's nystagmus

Work in or about a mine.

10. Diffuse mesothelioma (primary neoplasm of the mesothelium of the pleura or of the pericardium or of the peritoneum)

Work that involves:

(a) working or handling asbestos or any admixture of asbestos, or

(b) manufacturing or repairing asbestos textiles or other articles containing or composed of asbestos, or

(c) cleaning of any machinery or plant used in any of the above operations and of any chambers, fixtures or appliances for the collection of asbestos dust, or

(d) substantial exposure to the dust arising from any of the above operations

11. Substantial sensorineural hearing loss amounting to at least 50 decibels in each ear, being due in the case of at least one ear to occupational noise, and being the average of pure tone losses measured by audiometry over the 1, 2 and 3 kilohertz frequencies ( occupational deafness )

Conditions for Occupational Deafness

• You must have been employed in a prescribed occupation for at least 10 years.
  If you have left that employment, you must claim within 5 years of leaving

Work that involves:

(a) using or working wholly or mainly right beside the vicinity of pneumatic percussive tools or high-speed grinding tools, in the cleaning, dressing or finishing of cast metal or of ingots, billets or blooms, or

(b) using or working wholly or mainly right beside pneumatic percussive tools on metal in the shipbuilding or ship repairing industries, or

(c) using or working right beside pneumatic percussive tools on metal or for drilling or of highspeed grinding tools on metal including the sharpening of such tools on metal, for at least an average of one hour per working day, or

(d) working wholly or mainly right beside drop-forging plant (including plant for drop-stamping or drop-hammering) or forging press plant engaged in the shaping of metal, or

(e) working wholly or mainly in rooms or sheds where there are machines engaged in weaving man-made or natural (including mineral) fibres or in bulking up fibres in textile manufacturing, or

(f) using or working wholly or mainly right beside machines engaged in cutting, shaping or cleaning metal nails, or

(g) using or working wholly or mainly right beside plasma spray guns engaged in the deposition of metal, or

(h) using or working wholly or mainly right beside any of the following machines engaged in working wood or material composed partly of wood, that is multi-cutter moulding machines, planing machines, automatic or semi-automatic lathes, multiple cross-cut machines, automatic shaping machines, double-end tenoning machines, vertical spindle moulding machines (including highspeed routing machines), edge banding machines, band-sawing machines with a blade width of not less than 75 millimetres and circular sawing machines in the operation of which the blade is moved towards the material being cut, or

(i) using chain saws in forestry, or

(j) working wholly or mainly setting, tuning or testing of aircraft engines or right beside such work

12. Traumatic inflammation of the tendons of the hand or forearm or of the associated tendon sheaths

Manual labour, or frequent or repeated movements of the hand or wrist.

13. Vibration-induced white finger (that is, traumatic vasospasm of at least two distal phalanges of three or more digits of one hand - occurring without seasonal intermission)

Work that involves:

(a) using chain saws in forestry work, or

(b) using percussive-grinding or other rotary tools, or

(c) using pounding machines, or

(d) holding materials being worked on by percussive tools

14. Ulnar Nerve Neuritis

Work involving prolonged external pressure at or about the elbow

15. Carpal tunnel syndrome

(a) Work involving using hand-held power tools, but excluding those which are solely powered by hand, whose internal parts vibrate so as to transmit that vibration to the hand, or

(b) repetitive and forceful work causing abnormal pressure on the wrist over a prolonged period

16. Lateral epicondylitis

Work involving over a prolonged period, repeated and forceful rotational movements of the forearm with hand extended

B. Conditions due to biological agents

1. Ankylostomiasis

Work in or about a mine.

2. Anthrax

Work involving contact with animals infected with anthrax or with such animal products or residues or handling (including loading or unloading or transport) of merchandise contaminated by such animals, products or residues

3. Glanders

Work involving contact with equine animals or their carcasses.

4. Infection by Leptospira

(a) Work in places that are or are liable to be infested by rats or field mice, voles or other small mammals, or

(b) Work at dog kennels or the care or handling of dogs, or

(c) Work involving contact with bovine animals or their meat products or pigs or their meat products

5. Infection by organisms of the genus Brucella

Work involving contact with:

(a) animals infected by brucella or their carcasses or parts thereof or their untreated products, or

(b) laboratory specimens or vaccines of, or containing brucella.

6. Infection by Streptococcus suis

Work involving contact with pigs infected by streptococcus suis or with the carcasses, products or residues of pigs so infected

7. Extrinsic allergic alveolitis (including farmer's lung)

Work that involves exposure to moulds or fungal spores or heterologous proteins due to employment in:

(a) agriculture or horticulture, forestry, cultivation of edible fungi or maltworking, or

(b) loading or unloading or handling in storage mouldy vegetable matter or edible fungi, or

(c) caring for or handling birds, or

(d) handling bagasse

8. Tuberculosis

Work involving close and frequent contact with a source of tuberculosis infection

9. Viral hepatitis

Work that involves contact with:

(a) human blood or human blood products, or

(b) a source of viral hepatitis

10. Non-endemic infectious or parasitic diseases which are not endemic in the State. For example, malaria, leprosy, yellowfever, leishmaniasis, toxaplasmosis would be included in the category.

Work involving contact with a source of any such disease

C. Conditions due to chemical agents

1. (a) Angiosarcoma of the liver

(b) Osteolysis of the terminal phalanges of the fingers

(c ) Non-cirrhotic portal fibrosis

(a) Work in or about machinery or apparatus used for the polymerization of vinyl chloride monomer, a process that for the purposes of this provision, comprises all operations up to and including the drying of the slurry produced by the polymerization and the packaging of the dried product, or

(b) Work in a building or structure in which any part of that process takes place.

2. (a) Carcinoma of the mucous membrane of the nose or associated air sinuses

(b) Primary carcinoma of a bronchus or of a lung

Work in a factory where nickel is produced by decomposition of a gaseous nickel compound that necessitates working in or about a building or buildings where that process or any other industrial process connected or incidental to it takes place.

3. Dystrophy of the cornea, (including ulceration of the corneal surface) of the eye

Work that involves

(a) using or handling or exposure to arsenic or tar, pitch, bitumen, mineral oil (including paraffin) or soot, or any compound, product or residue of any of these substances except quinone or hydroquinone, or

(b) exposure to quinone or hydroquinone during their manufacture

4. (a) Localised new growth of the skin, papillomatous or keratotic

(b) Squamous-celled carcinoma of the skin

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to, arsenic, tar, pitch, bitumen, mineral oil (including paraffin), soot or any compound, product or residue of any of these substances, except quinone or hydroquinone

5. Occupational vitiligo

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to, para-tertiary-butylphenol or para-tertiary-butylcatechol or para-amylphenol, hydroquinone or the monobenzyl or monobutyl ether of hydroquinone

6. Primary neoplasm (including papilloma, carcinoma-in-situ and invasive carcinoma) of the epithelial lining of the urinary tract (renal, pelvis, ureter, bladder and urethra)

(a) Work in a building in which any of the following substances is produced for commercial purposes:

(i) alpha-naphthylamine or beta- naphthylamine or methylene-bis-orthochloroaniline

(ii) diphenyl substituted by at least one nitro or primary amino group or by at least one nitro and primary amino group (including benzidine)

(iii) any of the substances mentioned in sub-paragraph (ii) above if further ring substituted by halogeno, methyl or methoxy groups, but not by other groups

(iv) the salts of any of the substances mentioned in sub-paragraphs i, ii, iii above

(v) auramine or magenta, or

(b) the use or handling or any of the substances mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) i to iv, or work in a process in which any such substance is used or handled or liberated, or

(c) maintaining or cleaning any plant or machinery used in any such process as mentioned in sub-paragraph b), or cleaning clothing used in any building as mentioned in sub-paragraph a) if such clothing is cleaned within the works of which the building forms a part or in a laundry maintained and used solely in connection with such works

7. Poisoning by acrylamide monomer

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to, acrylamide monomer

8. Poisoning by arsenic or a compound of arsenic

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes, dust or vapour of, arsenic or a compound of arsenic or a substance containing arsenic.

9. Poisoning by benzene or a homologue of benzene

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes of, or vapour containing, benzene or any of its homologues

10. Poisoning by beryllium or a compound of beryllium

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes, dust or vapour of, beryllium or a compound of beryllium or a substance containing beryllium

11. Poisoning by cadmium or its toxic compounds

Work that involves exposure to the dust or fumes of cadmium or its toxic compounds

12. Poisoning by carbon bisulphide

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes or vapour of, carbon bisulphide or a compound of carbon bisulphide or a substance containing carbon bisulphide

13. Poisoning by chlorinated naphthalen

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes of, or dust or vapour containing chlorinated naphthalene

14. Poisoning by chrome or its toxic compounds

Work that involves exposure to the risk of poisoning by chrome or its toxic compounds

15. Poisoning by diethylene dioxide (dioxan)

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes of, or vapour containing, diethylene dioxide (dioxan)

16. Poisoning by dinitrophenol or a homologue of dinitrophenol, or by substituted dinitrophenols or by the salts of such substances.

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes of, or vapour containing, dinitrophenol or a homologue or substituted dinitrophenols or the salts of such substances

17. Poisoning by Gonioma kamassi (African boxwood)

Work that involves manipulation of gonioma kamassi, or any process in or incidental to manufacturing articles from it

18. Poisoning by lead or a compound of lead.

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes, dust or vapour of, lead or a compound of lead or a substance containing lead

19. Poisoning by manganese or a compound of manganese

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes, dust or vapour of, manganese or a compound of manganese or a substance containing manganese

20. Poisoning by mercury or a compound of mercury

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes, dust or vapour of, mercury or a compound of mercury or a substance containing mercury

21. Poisoning by nickel carbonyl

Work that involves exposure to nickel carbonyl gas

22. Poisoning by nitro- or amino- or chloro-derivatives of benzene or of a homologue of benzene or poisoning by nitrochlorbenzene

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes of, or vapour containing, a nitro- or amino- or chloro-derivative of benzene or of a homologue of benzene or nitrochlorbenzene

23. Poisoning by oxides of nitrogen

Work that involves exposure to oxides of nitrogen

24. Poisoning by phosphorus or an inorganic compound of phosphorus or poisoning due to the anticholinesterase or pseudo anticholinesterase action of organic phosphorus compounds

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes, dust or vapour of, phosphorus or a compound of phosphorus or a substance containing phosphorus

25. Poisoning by the toxic halogen derivatives of hydrocarbons of the aliphatic series.

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes of, or vapour containing, toxic halogen derivatives of hydrocarbons of the aliphatic series

26. Poisoning by fluorine or its toxic compounds

Work that involves exposure to fluorine or its toxic compounds

27. Poisoning by alcohols, glycols or ketones

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes or vapour of alcohols, glycols or ketones used as solvents or dilutants

28. Poisoning by carbon momoxide, hydrogen cyanide or its toxic derivatives or hydrogen sulphide.

Work involving exposure to the fumes or vapour of carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide or its toxic derivaties or hydrogen sulphide

29. Poisoning by nitroglycerine or nitroglycol.

Work that involves using or handling or exposure to the fumes, dust or vapour of, nitroglycerine or nitroglycol or a substance containing nitroglycerine or nitroglycol

30. Latex allergy:

Work involving exposure to latex in respect of work in human healthcare

D. Miscellaneous conditions

1. Asthma which is due to exposure to any of the following agents:

(a) animals or insects used for the purposes of research or education or in laboratories

(b) dusts due to sowing or cultivating, harvesting, drying, handling, milling, transporting or storing barley, oats, rye, wheat, or maize, or handling, milling, transporting or storing meal or flour made from them

(c) fumes or dusts arising from manufacturing or transporting or using hardening agents (including epoxy resin curing agents) based on phthalic anhydride or tetrachlorophthalic anhydride, trimellitic anhydride or triethylene-tetramine

(d) fumes arising from the use of resin as a soldering flux

(e) isocyanates

(f) platinum salts

(g) proteolytic enzymes

(h) red cedar wood dust

(i) glutaraldehyde

(j) latex in respect of work in human healthcare (occupational asthma)

Condition for occupational asthma

If you have left a prescribed occupation you must claim benefit within 10 years of leaving.

Work that involves exposure to any of the agents set out across

2. Inflammation or ulceration of the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory passages or mouth produced by dust or liquid or vapour

Work involving exposure to dust or liquid or vapour

3. Non-infective dermatitis of external origin (including chrome ulceration of the skin but excluding dermatitis due to ionising particles or electro-magnetic radiations other than radiant heat)

Work involving exposure to dust or liquid or vapour or any other external agent capable of irritating the skin (including friction or heat, but excluding ionising particles or electro-magnetic radiations other than radiant heat)