Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a serious, long-term lung condition that can make breathing difficult and limit a person’s ability to work. While smoking is often linked to COPD, many workers develop this disease due to long-term exposure to harmful substances on the job.
If you are living with work-related COPD, know that you may be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits to help with medical care, lost wages, and other needs.
Causes and responses
Occupational COPD can be caused by breathing in dust, fumes, chemicals and vapors over time. Common high-risk industries include construction, manufacturing, agriculture, mining and textile work. Inhaling silica dust, diesel exhaust, or toxic cleaning agents regularly can damage the lungs, sometimes without noticeable symptoms until the damage is advanced.
Britain’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recently released a fact sheet highlighting workplace concerns contributing to COPD. This resource highlights information that doctors and labor experts have long warned about: a significant number of COPD cases are linked to environmental exposures at work, not just smoking. While the HSE is a UK organization, its findings and broader guidance apply globally. Their work also underscores the importance of employers minimizing exposure to harmful substances and the right of workers to seek benefits if they are harmed.
In Illinois, workers’ compensation laws protect employees who become ill due to conditions in the workplace. You will not need to prove your employer was negligent. Instead, you must show that your illness is work-related. Partially because the disease develops slowly, and partially because it may be caused by more than one concern, insurance companies may try to blame your condition on other causes.
Linking your job duties to your COPD diagnosis will not necessarily be easy, especially if you have also smoked in the past. But simply because it may be a bit of an uphill battle does not mean you can’t prove your condition is work-related.
If you are struggling with COPD and believe your job may have contributed to your condition, you do not have to face it alone. Seek medical help right away, and talk to a skilled legal team. This disease can be life-changing, and you deserve as much support as you can get.