Are gradual injuries and occupational diseases covered?
When the workers’ compensation law was first passed, there had to be an “accident” in order for benefits to be paid. That has long since been changed. If Mary Smith did not hurt her back by a single incident but her back gradually became painful as the result of lifting over and over, day after day, she can still be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. This is what the law calls “an injury not attributable to a single event.” Another special category is “occupational diseases.” At first no diseases were covered by the Act. Then only listed diseases were covered. Then all occupational diseases were covered but certain special conditions were laid down for the payment of compensation benefits in occupational disease cases. Most of those have been gradually taken out of the law. Section 431 of the Act provides that if, on an employment application, a worker “willfully and falsely represents in writing that he has not previously suffered from the disease which is the cause of the di
