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Occupational Diseases Give Rise To Workman's Compensation Claims
Workers can also collect under North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act if they become ill and are rendered unable to work as a result of an occupational disease.
The North Carolina Supreme Court has defined an occupational disease as “a diseased condition caused by a series of events, of a similar or like nature, occurring regularly or at frequent intervals over an extended period of time in employment.” The Supreme Court also accepted the following definition of occupational disease: “A diseased condition arising gradually from the character of the employees work.”
By statute in North Carolina occupational diseases are “treated as the happening of an injury by accident within the meaning of the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act and the procedure and practice and compensation and other benefits provided by said act shall apply in all such cases . . .”
The North Carolina General Assembly has listed those diseases which are to be deemed occupational diseases. Among these are the following:
Anthrax poisoning
Arsenic poisoning
Brass poisoning
Zinc poisoning
Manganese poisoning
Lead poisoning
Mercury poisoning
Phosphorus poisoning
Poisoning by carbon bisulphide, menthanol,
Chrome ulceration
Compressed-air illness
Poisoning by benzol, or by nitro and amido deritives of benzol, aniline, and others.
Epitheliomatous cancer or ulceration of the skin.
Radium poisoning.
Blisters due to use of tools or appliances in the employment
Bursitis
Miner’s nystagmus
Bone felon
Synovitis
Tenosynovitis
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Poisoning by sulphuric, hydrochloric or hydrofluoric Acid
Asbestosis
Silicosis
Psittacosis
Undulant feverh vaccinia, or any adverse medical reaction when the infection or adverse reaction is due to the employee receiving in employment vaccination against smallpox or due to the employee being exposed to another employee vaccinated as described.