ABSTRACT
Work related disablement may be broadly divided into four categories, according to the type of disability and the circumstances in which it occurs. First, in the typical accident situation, the worker is involved in an event which causes him immediate disablement – for example he might fall and break a limb. In the second type of situation the worker is exposed for a short time to a hazard which in due course leads to his disability: for example a worker in a medical laboratory might contract an infectious disease as a result of a specimen he handled there. In the third type of case the worker, after long term exposure to hazardous conditions, might contract an illness such as cancer. In the fourth type of case the worker, after long term exposure to a hazard, might develop a physical disability such as deafness. The first and second categories described are similar in that the physical condition is caused by an incident which occurs at a precise moment of time, although it is conceded that in the second example there may be difficulty in identifying exactly when that incident occurred. The third and fourth categories are similar in that, while the disablement manifests itself in a different form in each case, the victim in both
cases suffers a gradual deterioration in health as the result of long exposure to unsatisfactory conditions ...15
