MHE510, Occupational Health and Safety, Mod 4 Case Assignment Essay

MHE510, Occupational Health and Safety, Mod 4 Case Assignment - Essay Example In this case, the patient sued the company he is working for because he has mesothelioma and has been exposed to asbestos. He admits that he has had several positions and all of them exposed him to asbestos. The UK courts have determined that the exposure is work related and now must determine how much of the cost of the workmans compensation each of the companies are responsible for (OSullivan, 2010). Before this writer could take a position, there are some things that must be known? Does or has this employee actually worked in a company where he might have been exposed to asbestos? What kind of lung cancer does he presently have and is he a smoker? Have there been any tests to assure that this lung cancer is coming from exposure to asbestos? If the answer to number one is true and number three is positive, the answer has to be that this is a workmans comp case. Workmans compensation is meant to cover a disabled worker who has been injured on the job with a fixed income in an effort to avoid litigation because of the injury. These awards are awarded for disability or to the family in the case of death (cornell.edu, 2010). It was the first critical legislation that was provided in liability. It has changed quite a lot since that original ruling and there is more onus on the boards to determine whether an exposure was from work or personnel. In the case of asbestos, there are now very specific things, including small particle masks that an employer is supposed to use. If they do not and the employee is exposed, it is not difficult to determine where the exposure happened. There are other more difficult cases however (Anderson, 2000). An example of this is the firefighter that gets lung cancer and is also a smoker. It is known from studies (Guidotti, 2007) that firefighters are exposed to many carcinogens therefore the suggestion for those exposures is as follows. "There is presumption justified for the following cancers: bladder, kidney, testicular and brain