Managing Employee Injuries and Disability and Occupational Safety

the purpose of apportioning liability. The abbreviation “CT” is often used to refer to cumulative trauma. Labor Code Section 3208.1.

E. T YPES OF I NJURIES

There are numerous types of injuries, too many to cover specifically. However, certain injuries are worth special discussion.

1. O CCUPATIONAL D ISEASE Certain diseases and infirmities that develop gradually as a result of engaging in particular employments and that are generally known and understood to be usual incidents or hazards of those employments are distinguished from those having traumatic origins, or otherwise developed suddenly or unexpectedly. An occupational disease is one in which the cumulative effect of repetitive exposures or activities which are natural to and inherent in a particular employment by special exposure or risk ultimately results in disability. Injuries sustained as the result of occupational diseases become compensable when the disease culminates in disability. Examples of occupational diseases include: inflammation of a carpet layer’s knees from continued kneeling, exposure to toxic substances, and hearing loss from industrial noise. Note that it is possible that an employee could be exposed to injurious substances in the work place which may not result in injury until years later. A classic example would be transitory exposure to asbestos which may not result in disability until several years later. In such a case, the “injury” does not occur until it becomes disabling and the employer who employed the individual at the time of the injurious exposure is held liable. 2. C OMMUNICABLE D ISEASE Communicable diseases which an employee contracts as a direct consequence of his employment have long been compensable. Examples would include tuberculosis contracted by a hospital worker, or San Joaquin Valley Fever contracted by a construction worker who was exposed to dust containing infectious spores. Note however that if an employee is laid off from work during the incubation period of a communicable disease which was contracted at work, but suffers no symptoms due to the exposure, he has not sustained an industrial injury. 30 3. I DIOPATHIC S EIZURE Falls resulting from an idiopathic condition, such as epilepsy, which manifests itself at work, will be deemed to arise out of employment because the floor or any object struck is an integral part of the work place. 31

Managing Employee Injuries, Disability and Occupational Safety ©2019 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 27