occupational disease News

Arizona Appellate Court Upholds Death Benefits for Widow of Worker Killed by COVID

The widow of an Arizona worker who died after contracting COVID-19 from a co-worker suffered a workplace “accident” that is compensable under the state’s workers’ compensation law, a panel of the state Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. In a 3-0 …

Court Asks if Exclusive Remedy Exception Applies to ‘Intentional’ Lead Poisoning

Utah workers are allowed to sue their employers for an injury caused by their employer’s intentional act. That exception to the exclusive remedy of the state Workers’ Compensation Act was carved out by a state supreme court decision in 1975. …

NCCI Says 2% of COVID-19 Work Comp Claims May Result in Permanent Disability

If COVID-19 behaves like other workers’ compensation lung and disease claims, about two out of 100 cases may result in some degree of permanent partial disability and one out of 2,000 may result in permanent total disability, according to a …

More Evidence Welding Fumes Raise Lung Cancer Risk

Workers exposed to welding fumes are more likely to develop lung cancer than those not exposed to the fumes, and a new study suggests this holds true regardless of other risk factors like smoking or exposure to asbestos. “Welding fumes …

Samsung Worker Who Died of a Brain Tumor Wins Compensation Case

Overturning an appeal court’s decision, South Korea’s Supreme Court said Tuesday the family of a Samsung worker who died of a brain tumor should be eligible for state compensation for an occupational disease. The ruling on Lee Yoon-jung, who was …

South Korea Court Rules Worker’s Rare Disease Linked to Samsung Factory

South Korea’s Supreme Court said a former worker in a Samsung LCD factory who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis should be recognized as having an occupationally caused disease, overturning lower courts’ verdicts that held lack of evidence against the worker. …

Trade Secret Protection Blocks Sick Samsung Workers From Data

As a high school senior, Hwang Yu-mi went to work bathing silicon wafers in chemicals at a Samsung factory that makes computer chips for laptops and other devices. Four years later, she died of leukemia. She was 22. After Yu-mi’s …