Your employer is obliged, by law, to protect you whilst you are at work and doing your job
This includes safety in your workplace, the way in which you work and preventing industrial diseases or illness. When this duty of care is compromised the results can be serious.
Industrial disease compensation can be obtained for a range of illnesses including industrial deafness and hearing loss, hand-arm vibration syndrome, occupational dermatitis, lung diseases such as asthma, pneumoconiosis, emphysema, asbestos related diseases including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis and many other conditions.
You have up to three years from your diagnosis to start your claim.
Deafness and hearing loss claims
You may have suffered hearing loss due to working in a noisy environment. This work-related hearing damage is called noise induce hearing loss.
Workers in heavy industry are often exposed to excessive noise at work and if there hasn’t been proper ear protection or training this can lead to hearing problems such as hearing loss, deafness or tinnitus.
Hearing loss can be very distressing and can have a huge impact on both you and your family.
Some of the early signs which can indicate noise induced hearing loss are mishearing words in a conversation, having to turn up the volume on the TV more than is necessary for others in the household and struggling to hear conversation when there is other background noise.
Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) claims
HAVS is a Raynaud’s disease caused by prolonged use of vibrating hand tools or machinery. The condition is usually developed over a period of time and the symptoms can be vascular and neurological.
Some of the early signs and symptoms that you could be developing the condition are:
- Tingling and numbness in the fingers (which can cause sleep disturbance).
- Not being able to feel things with your fingers.
- Loss of strength in your hands (you may be less able to pick up or hold heavy objects).
- In the cold and wet, the tips of your fingers going white then red and being painful on recovery.
Whitening of the fingers is caused by spasms of the blood vessels. The spasms can affect all of the fingers or only some of the fingers. The fingers will become cold and numb and the attacks can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. The condition is not treatable, but it can be kept under control and may spontaneously improve.
Asbestos and Mesothelioma claims
There are approximately 2000 mesothelioma claims per year which have been based on negligent asbestos exposure in various occupations such as factory work, construction work and plumbing. We regularly bring other asbestos compensation claims for lung cancer, asbestosis and pleural thickening.
Between the 1950s and the 1980s asbestos was used extensively as a building material, especially for insulation and as a fire-retardant. The more dangerous varieties of blue and brown asbestos were banned in 1985, but asbestos-containing materials (ACMs), such as asbestos cement, continued to be used until 1999.
Asbestos was often mixed with other materials, which now makes it difficult to identify.
It is estimated that more than half a million non-domestic premises now have some asbestos and at least 3,500 people in Great Britain die from mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung cancer each year.
How we can help
Timms Solicitors are experts in dealing with these types of claims. We understand that these claims may be difficult to navigate as the illness is usually caused years before a diagnosis is made, however, we work sensitively and determinedly to get a positive result for you.
For further details, please call our dedicated experienced team on freephone 0800 011 6666 or via email at legal@timms-law.com.
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