OCCUPATIONAL ASTHMA

Research in Great Britain and the USA shows 20% of all adult asthmatics attribute their illness to work exposure - something for which some would be compensated if they knew their rights - and many others might be if 'experts' agreed on the true scale of the problem.
   The disability benefit scheme administered by the DSS has only 550 beneficiaries despite being established to cope with an expected 21,000 claims since 1982. A quarter of all workers using the sensitiser isocyanate, 5000 people, were expected to claim but only 65 a year are gaining benefits. More than 70,000 bakers work with another sensitiser, flour, but less than 50 a year make successful claims. Overall around 200 new awards are made each year. The benefits paid to all the sufferers can be no more that £800,000 a year.
    The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) report recommending the introduction of this scheme which was prescribed in March 1982 expected thousands of claims to be made. Up to 10,000 initially with about a thousand a year afterwards. They estimated apart from the 5,000 likely claimants using isocyanates, there would also be 1,500 working with animals and insects in research laboratories and 500 using platinum salts who would claim. It was expected the biggest group would have come from among more than 100,000 people exposed to flour and grain dust but the IIAC was not certain how many of these would suffer asthma. ⁽¹⁾

TRUE TOLL
A more recent indication of the extent of occupational asthma came in the 1990 Labour Force Survey, from which it was concluded during the previous year around 80,000 cases of lower respiratory disease, including asthma, had been suffered and the respondents felt it has been caused or made worse by their work. ⁽²⁾ Other reports suggest higher rates. Between 5 and 10% of the general population is now said to suffer asthma and studies suggest at least one in five of these may be attributed to work - over a quarter of a million work related asthmatics. ⁽²⁾⁽³⁾

TAKE UP
Despite the predictions, there were fewer than 500 claims in the first year of the scheme causing trades unions, notable the General Municipal & Boilermakers' (GMB) and the Bakers' union, to mount a campaign persuading the DHSS to publicise the scheme. It was said at the time, with the DHSS merely sending a press note to selected bodies and producing a leaflet for distribution at local offices, then if sufferers did not read the highly specialist press, were not in a union, or did not ask at their local DHSS office, then they were unlikely to discover the scheme. ⁽⁴⁾⁽⁵⁾ In a parliamentary debate in July 1983 the Government was criticised by Alf Morris, the Labour shadow minister, for spending so little on publicising the scheme. ^(5a)
   Some indication of official attitudes can be found in the ruling that the injured and sick should, themselves, realise they have benefit rights or be expected to take reasonable measures to acquaint themselves with their rights or be expected to make enquiries to find their rights from social security officials who have a duty to give advice. ⁽⁶⁾
   The disquiet in 1983 over the lack of publicity brought about an advertising poster in Spring 1985 which, with other initiatives, gained some publicity in the health and safety press, ⁽⁷⁾⁽⁸⁾ but it can be seen the scheme continues to draw few claims.
    There has been little real improvement and the numbers of claimants remain extremely low and successful beneficiaries minimal. During 1991 (the most recent year for which figures are available) there were 293 diagnosed cases among claimants of whom 66 got no cash benefit at all due to the '14% cut-off' rule introduced in 1986.
   The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) claimed this as a 'sharp rise' pointing to the 216 diagnosed cases in the previous year. ^(9)(10)
   At the outset the scheme had covered a close list of asthmatic sensitisers - isocyanates; platinum salts; some hardening agents in plastics and adhesives; soldering flux fumes; proteolytic enzymes in washing powders, baking and brewing, fish, silk and leather industries; animals or insects in research laboratories; and grain and flour dusts on farms, in milling, and baking. Another seven agents were scheduled in September 1986 and five years later the scheme was widened yet again and now includes an open category, 'any other sensitiser', which is some recognition of the HSE admission that there are more than 200 sensitising agents. ⁽¹¹⁾
   Figures given in reply to Parliamentary questions in March 1986 indicated the degree of success claimants had then in securing an award: ⁽¹²⁾

When the IIAC reported to the Secretary of State for Social Security on the working of the scheme in October 1990 ⁽¹³⁾, it showed in the years 1985 to 1988 there had been 1,413 cases examined by the medical boards of which 774 had been diagnosed as occupational asthma. But nearly half (365) were below the 14% level which has become significant since October 1986. According to the HSE the new general rule, under which only those with disability assessed at 14% and more qualify for benefit, has substantially reduced awards, "and seems also to have reduced the numbers making claims - probably because in many cases it will be clear that they will not qualify for any benefit." ⁽¹⁴⁾

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