What Is Lung Disease?

What Is Lung Disease?

Put simply, lung diseases are any conditions that affect your breathing.

One of the main questions we are asked about lung problems is how we can establish if they may be related to your former or current working environment. With some conditions this can be a relatively straight forward task as certain lung problems can only be caused by a very particular type of exposure, for example:-

• Mesothelioma – can only be caused by asbestos exposure
• Silicosis and Pneumoconiosis – caused by exposure to silica and/or stone/rock dust
• Byssinosis – caused by exposure to cotton fibres

But what about other lung diseases that could have more than one cause? Such as:-

• Asthma
• Lung cancer
• Pulmonary fibrosis
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Pleural thickening

How do we confirm if they may be due to work or down to something else? We usually start with a simple process of elimination and try to rule out any other causes. Smoking is often the main culprit but that isn’t to say that just because you have smoked you condition cannot be work related. The Court will sometimes reduce an award of compensation – typically by up to 20% – if they think smoking could be a factor in your difficulties. If we cannot identify any other cause for your problems we often then instruct not only medical experts but also expert engineers or chemists to provide an analysis of your likely industrial exposure and provide a view on the probability that this could be the cause of your problems.

The legal test we have to satisfy is one of balance of probabilities, in simple terms can we persuade a Court that there is a 51% chance that your lung problems are linked to your employment? That may sound like a straight forward task but it rarely is in practice. Gathering the evidence and tracking down the right experts can be time consuming tasks, especially in circumstances where your employment finished many years ago and so documents may no longer be available. That fact is that the sooner you contact us the better the chances are that we can help.                                

Call us now on 0800 122 3130 or click here to start your claim.