What is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD covers several diseases that cause damage to your lungs and make breathing difficult. There are millions of people in the UK that suffer from the condition and it is often undiagnosed.
These diseases include:
- Emphysema
- Chronic bronchitis
- Chronic obstructive airways disease
What are the symptoms of COPD?
The primary symptom of COPD is breathlessness due to narrowing of the airways. Other symptoms include:
- Persistent coughing with phlegm
- Wheezing
- Frequent chest infections
What causes COPD?
A multitude of different types of dust and fume can cause COPD. These include:
- Cadmium dust and fume
- Coal dust
- Dye dust
- Grain and flour dust
- Leather dust
- Mineral dust
- Organic/poultry dust
- Silica dust
- Welding fume
What industries can cause COPD?
Industries which are known to potentially expose workers to these types of dust and fume include:
- Agriculture
- Brickmaking
- Car mechanic
- Construction
- Dockworkers
- Food e.g. bakery
- Foundry
- Glass manufacturing
- Petroleum
- Plastics
- Pottery/ceramic
- Quarry e.g. slate quarry
- Refuse
- Rubber
- Steel
- Stone masonry
- Textiles e.g. clothing, carpet
- Waste
If you have been a smoker and were exposed to dust or fume at work, you can still claim. Your damages may be reduced to reflect the contribution which your smoking made to your COPD.
How might my employer be responsible?
Your employer should have health and safety policies that prevent harmful exposure to chemicals or dust that cause conditions like COPD. Your employer has a duty of care under common law and statute designed to limit your exposure to harmful chemicals or dust. These responsibilities include:
- Advising you on what the potential hazards and risks are
- Explaining what the exposure limits are
- Sharing any results of exposure monitoring with you
- Providing respiratory protective equipment (RPE), such as masks and filters
If you feel your employer has failed in its duty of care, you need to speak to one of our specialist COPD solicitors today.
Our experience
The Hugh James COPD solicitors work within the Workplace Disease Team. This team has successfully brought some of the largest industrial disease claims in the UK so you can have confidence they have the experience and specialist knowledge that is required for this complex area of law. Our strong reputation in workplace disease litigation has been further improved by recently winning a landmark case where others had failed.
We have helped thousands of people claim millions of pounds in compensation following employer negligence.
Our team of workplace injury solicitors can help with:
- Seeking interim payments of damages where possible
- Exploring treatment and other rehabilitation options with insurers
- Providing benefit advice
- A free financial check up
- Financial planning
