Occupational Related Disease VS Work Related Disease

May 28, 2024    Personal Injury Lawyers Perth
Occupational Related Disease VS Work Related Disease

People work to make a living – and expect their wages to be enough for food, medicines, and other things to live properly. The employer’s ethical responsibility is to arrange for safe and secure working conditions for their employees to prevent occupational diseases from spreading. However, companies disregard them in several locations, places, and even countries to increase their profits. Other than that, individuals can acquire workplace injuries for several reasons.

The Australian personal injury law offers compensation to workers who might get harmed while performing jobs ordered by their employers. If you have experienced such events or need to know more, it would be best to call a personal injury lawyer.

However, before anything else, it is imperative to understand what falls under compensation. There are work-related ailments and occupational diseases. You need to know what can be considered for compensation. Here, we have discussed in detail:

Difference Between Work-Related Disease vs Occupational Disease –

Different types of disorders associated with work can occur at the place of employment; however, the most common of them, occupational disease and work-related disease, are used interchangeably. Their meanings and connected concepts are slightly different, and it’s good to know about them in detail.

Work-Related Disease

Among these two expressions, the more wide-ranging term is a work-related disease. This term means any disease the employee acquires wholly or partly because of their working conditions or a condition getting aggravated by the working situations.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that these diseases can have multiple causes of occupational disease as well as work-related disease, and the aspects of the work environment may play a role. Still, the involvement of other risk factors must be addressed.

Occupational Disease

The concept behind an occupational disease is more specific. In many countries, it is primarily considered a legal term linked with the likelihood of some financial reward for a sufferer of such diseases.

Usually, an occupational disease can be caused by chemical, physical, and biological means at work. In most cases, one can find illnesses defined by one specific causal factor (for example, crystalline silica for silicosis). Work-related illnesses contain all occupational disease types.

Different Types of Occupational Disease

The workers can acquire an occupational disease from one of these causes:

1. Chemical reasons:

Employees are exposed to solid, liquid, or gas chemicals, including cleaning products, fumes, flammable materials, vapours, and pesticides.

2. Biological causes:

These threats are regularly connected with businesses that work with people, animals, or transferable plant materials. These industries include daycares, correctional facilities, nursing homes, healthcare, schools, open-air jobs, and emergency medical services. Organic exposures include blood, bodily fluids, animal droppings, bacteria, viruses, mould, plants, and insect bites.

3. Ergonomic dangers:

These problems occur when the worker’s body gets strained from work – including working conditions or body positions. It isn’t easily recognised or detected by the employers – and may remain unnoticed until the worker suffers an injury or a long-standing illness.

4. Physical risks:

Any environmental factor causing harm to the worker’s body, even if it remains in indirect contact, falls in the physical hazard. These occupational hazards include excessive exposure to sunlight, ultraviolet rays, radiation exposure, extreme temperatures, and excessive noise.

The situation in the fields

It’s expected that the Australian workforce would get a danger-free working environment, but the actual situation presents a grim picture. According to verified studies, 81% of Australian workers are regularly exposed to more than one oncogene, whereas 26% are exposed to more than five.

It means that thousands of Australians daily go to work and maybe unwillingly threatened by their job-related contact with dust, fumes, chemicals, and other cancer-causing agents.

The alarming rates underline the necessary efforts individuals need to become aware of their rights. The most experienced personal injury lawyer Perth can provide the correct information and help you get any compensation you deserve.

The IARC (The International Agency of Research for Cancer) has identified some carcinogenic substances that Australian workers get exposed to. Here is their list:

  • Benzene
  • Aflatoxins (mould)
  • Asbestos
  • Silica
  • Tobacco
  • Solar radiation
  • Wood dust
  • Welding fumes.

Therefore, the workers coming under the group with the greatest risk of developing occupational diseases are firefighters, farmers, stonemasons, miners, welders, tunnel diggers, manufacturers, and others. Importantly, these affected industries constitute a larger part of the Australian workforce.

Concluding statement

In conclusion, we would like to state that Australian employers are legally responsible for compensating workers if they acquire an occupational disease because of their carelessness. if you have faced such issues, you should hire the most proficient Personal Injury Solicitors Perth.

They can help you understand your fitness for compensation application, perform compilation work for the case, and direct you towards a settlement. As a result, you will get you financial relief from your illness.

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