Your employer has a legal duty to ensure your health and safety, and if they fail in this duty, they may be liable to pay you damages for the losses you have incurred. One aspect of health and safety concerns care of the skin. It is protective and has a range of useful functions. It is important to ensure that it is kept in good condition, yet exposure to a variety of workplace conditions and irritants might give you and your co-workers a skin disease which can range from very mild dermatitis, to life-threatening disease such as skin cancer. Given these risks, you should monitor the state of yourself carefully and seek medical and legal advice if you think your work has contributed to any problem. Those at risk vary broadly, as the following outline shows.
First, any workers who face irritant or hazardous chemicals are at risk of dermatitis: itchiness and inflammation, in localised areas in which the irritant has made contact or where allergy flares. This may affect those working with materials such as coke or metals, or scientific staff in laboratories. The skin disease dermatitis and severe discomfort may also arise from exposure to fibre glass particles. Fibre glass is used extensively in the boat, ship and insulation industries.
Construction workers face a number of risks to their health. Abrasion, friction and pressure may cause keloids to occur or even psoriasis if such exposure is sustained over time. Because much construction work occurs outdoors, construction workers, and indeed anyone who spends prolonged time outdoors in the sunlight, may face the threat of severe sunburn, keratosis, melanoma and rosacia. In some cases cancer may develop, in which malignant tumours grow after exposure from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. This type of skin disease is clearly a worst case scenario, worsened still by the plausibility the cancer might spread to other areas of the body.
Those who are exposed to the heat and to the cold may also suffer. Heat induces rashes including ‘prickly heat’, which though an annoyance can cause a sufferer to become substantially impaired if the rash becomes widespread. The cold can cause cracks and discomfort, and in the worst cases frostbite has been evident among sailors and fisherman and outdoors workers subject to extremes of temperature or high altitudes.
Some workers face severe risk to their general health if their employers are negligent. Insufficiently trained or equipped workers who deal with electricity, such as telephone engineers, endanger severe burns and necrosis if they are electrocuted. Workers in the nuclear power industry or in relevant medical fields face ionising radiation which may plausibly cause cancer or radiation dermatitis.
The UK Occupational Illness Solicitors Network operates nationwide and will deal with a claim using the no win no fee scheme. Compensation is always paid in full with absolutely no deductions and there is no need to finance your claim. If the case is lost you still pay nothing. If after talking to us you decide not to take matters further then you are under no obligation to do so and you will not be charged for our advice.
