J Korean Med Sci.  2014 Jun;29(Suppl):S66-S71. 10.3346/jkms.2014.29.S.S66.

Compensation for Work-Related Hematologic, Liver, and Infectious Diseases

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Kosin University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea.
  • 2Department of Preventive and Occupational Medicine, School of Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea. kangdm@pusan.ac.kr

Abstract

Occupational diseases may be defined only medically or scientifically, and even then, their definition is not simple. However, compensable occupational diseases involve the additional layer of legal systems and social welfare policies as well. Their multifaceted nature makes determining the work-relatedness of these diseases more complex. Korea has established standards for the recognition of occupational diseases in Schedule 5 of the Enforcement Decree of the Labor Standards Act, and specific criteria for the recognition of occupational diseases are listed in Schedule 3 of the Enforcement Decree of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act. The new list of compensable occupational diseases comprises 13 articles as an open-ended system. The newly added articles pertain to lymphohematopoietic (Article 5) and infectious diseases (Article 9), as well as diseases of other target organs. Furthermore, the article on liver diseases (Article 8) has been partially revised. The new act has been changed to clarify the meaning as it has been presented in recent research. It is necessary to achieve agreement among concerned parties, including experts from the legal, medical, and social domains to resolve the issues of work-relatedness, causation, notion of aggravation, and so on for preparing a list and a process that are more reasonable.

Keyword

Workers' Compensation; Hematologic Diseases; Liver Diseases; Infectious Diseases; Korea

MeSH Terms

Adult
Benzene/toxicity
Communicable Diseases/*economics
Dimethylformamide/toxicity
Drug-Induced Liver Injury/economics
Female
Hematologic Diseases/chemically induced/*economics
Humans
Lead/toxicity
Liver Diseases/*economics
Male
Middle Aged
Occupational Diseases/*economics
Republic of Korea
Trichloroethylene/toxicity
Vinyl Chloride/toxicity
Workers' Compensation/*economics
Benzene
Dimethylformamide
Lead
Trichloroethylene
Vinyl Chloride

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