LABOR CASES

The Four Types of Social Security

Cause of Death Verified as Occupational Illness through Epidemiological Investigation

I. Introduction
When an employee applies for compensation for an occupational illness, the Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service (hereinafter referred to as “COMWEL”) determines whether the employee has an occupational illness or not through its own investigation, the opinions of a medical professional (or professional agency), and a review by the Occupational Disease Determination Committee. In cases where its own investigation is unable to determine whether there is a relationship to work, COMWEL can ask a professional agency to conduct an epidemiological investigation, through which it will determine whether the illness in question is an occupational illness or not. Such illnesses as black lung disease (Pneumoconiosis) and lead poisoning, and conditions such as noise-induced deafness are more easily linked to occupation than some other illnesses such as cancer, hemoptysis (vomiting blood), asthma, and dermatitis are not so easy to link. In this case, gathering information on the working environment will be of considerable help.
I would like to introduce a case of occupational illness which resulted in death from vomiting of blood. The employee in question had had a lung illness for a long period of time, and along with severe coughing, became worse from his harmful working environment. The labor attorney for this case claimed, on the basis of a statement from his surviving family, that the industrial illness victim (hereinafter referred to as “the employee”) died from his long-term illness deteriorating through exposure to harmful chemicals like sulfuric acid in the process of zinc smelting. The labor attorney submitted an application for survivor’s benefits without a direct investigation. After receiving the application, COMWEL asked a professional agency (the Occupational Lung Disease Research Institute ) to conduct an epidemiological investigation. Once the results were in, COMWEL concluded a close relationship between the employee’s workplace environment and the exacerbation of his illness, accepting his death as due to a work-related illness.

II. Summary
(1) The employee had worked at a zinc smelting factory since 2006. When he died at Aju University hospital at age 61 on December 16, 2011, his spouse applied for Survivor’s Benefits on February 29, 2012 to the COMWEL Youngju Office.
(2) On December 9, 2011 when the employee began vomiting blood and experienced difficulties in breathing, he was admitted to Wonju Christian Hospital where he continued to vomit blood and suffer from pneumonia. He died from respiratory and organ failure on December 16, 2011.
(3) Since joining OO zinc smelting company on June 12, 2006, the employee had worked as a machine operator in charge of a filter press machine for a total of 5 years and 3 months. The smelting process at a filter press extracts zinc by dividing cake (solids) and filtrate (liquid) after melting sludge coming from a sludge container. The employee swept up the cake on the floor when it fell in the process of dividing from the filtrate. In this smelting process, sulfuric acid was used and the employee was continuously exposed to the sulfuric acid gas.
(4) Before beginning employment at OO company, the employee had worked as a street cleaner from 2001 to 2005 (aged 51 to 55) from 4 am to 4pm, during which he began suffering from, and receiving treatment for, bronchitis and obstructive lung disease due to early morning cold air.
(5) As mentioned, the employee had been exposed to sulfuric acid gas, mineral dust, etc. continuously at the workplace while suffering from existing bronchitis and obstructive lung disease. In addition to this, the employee had to work longer hours than normal for a long period, which, combined with the stress from worry he would lose his job due to his poor health, was claimed to have caused pulmonary (lung) hypertension, resulting in his vomiting blood and ultimately his death.
(6) Fifteen months after his spouse applied for Survivor’s Benefits, during which COMWEL conducted an investigation, received medical opinions, and the results of an epidemiological investigation, the Occupational Disease Determination Committee agreed that the employee died from an occupational illness.

III. The Limits of Investigation and Request for Epidemiological Investigation
1. The applicant’s difficulties in investigating for herself
In the application for Survivor’s Benefits, the applicant claimed that the employee had suffered from chronic fatigue due to working in two shifts for a long period of time; had stress and insomnia due to worries over losing his job because of his illnesses; and had been exposed to a harmful working environment (including sulfuric acid), which had caused pulmonary hypertension, vomiting of blood, and his death. The claim that the employee suffered from fatigue and stress could be causes for stroke or heart disease, but not for vomiting blood. Accordingly, the applicant had to verify that the workplace’s harmful substance (sulfuric acid) had exacerbated the employee’s existing conditions of bronchitis and obstructive lung disease and had caused pulmonary hypertension and vomiting of blood. However, the applicant was not able to gain access to the workplace, and had to depend on the COMWEL investigation. The following is the result of the epidemiological investigation from the professional agency commissioned by COMWEL.

2. COMWEL request for an epidemiological investigation
When there is difficulty in determining whether an illness is occupational or not, COMWEL can ask for professional opinions from a medical doctors’ advisory council, the industrial safety and research centers of the Korea Industrial Safety Corporation, or other agencies that can evaluate occupational diseases. Also, the Medical Care Processing Rules describe that when it comes to difficulty in determining recognition of an occupational illness concretely, COMWEL may ask relevant institutes (such as medical doctors’ associations or industrial safety research institutes) to give advice and participate in the investigation. This includes cases 1) where it is difficult to verify whether the employee’s existing illness affected the occupational illness, 2) where meaningful difference exists between the medical doctor in charge and the advisory doctor regarding clinical signs that will show the degree of the employee’s exposure to harmful materials, 3) where it is difficult for a doctors advisory council to determine relation of an illness to occupation, or where there are no criteria for the occupational illness, and 4) where an epidemiological investigation is necessary to recognize whether a cause-and-effect relationship exists between work and illness. Upon concluding this investigation, as long as there is no clear evidence to disprove the illness was work-related, it should be accepted as an occupational illness.

3. Epidemiological investigation and recognition of the occupational disease by the Occupational Lung Disease Research Center
(1) Understanding workplace environment
The employee’s work was to operate the filter press (F/P disintegration) machine to retrieve a small amount of metal out of sludge coming from a sludge container. In this process, the employee was exposed to steam and carbon monoxide (CO) from the leftover liquid and cake. There is no artificial ventilation system in the disintegration process of the filter press, but there is natural ventilation in the roof of the three storey building. The agency measured the air quality of the workplace twice: on October 10, 2012, for 5 hours and 40 minutes to check the internal air of the workplace with a multiple gas measurement instrument; and on March 26 & 27, 2013, for 20 hours to check carbon monoxide concentrations in t

For further questions, please
call (+82) 2-539-0098 or email bongsoo@k-labor.com

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