SILICOSIS AND WORKERS COMPENSATION IN NEW-JERSEY

The employer is expected to maintain responsibility for health care ex penses and lost income that result from occupational injury and illnes s through the workers' compensation insurance system, However financia l support for individuals with occupational illnesses, especially thos e with long latency, is often from sources other than workers' compens ation, Silicosis, a well defined, chronic, occupational lung disease, can be viewed as a sentinel for the inadequacy of the public policy to compensate workers for chronic occupational lung disease. Three hundr ed twenty-nine patients with confirmed silicosis were identified by th e silicosis surveillance program in the New Jersey Department of Healt h using source data from 1979 through 1992. One hundred seventy-seven of these individuals provided information on the status of any compens ation claims against their employer, Only 31% of these patients stated that a claim had been filed; 84% of those whose claims were settled w ere awarded payments, Severity of radiologic findings was not associat ed with the likelihood of filing a claim or with being awarded a payme nt; whereas, smoking was associated with these outcomes, The implicati ons of these findings for the health care system are discussed.