Occupational Disease Compensation: Data Indicative Of Cost For Occupational Diseases In General, And Of Silicosis, Asbestosis And Dust Diseases In Particular

Our plain-English summary of Occupational Disease Compensation: Data Indicative Of Cost For Occupational Diseases In General, And Of Silicosis, Asbestosis And Dust Diseases In Particular, by F.J. Jones (1936).

The study

• Author: F.J. Jones
• Published: Industrial Medicine 5(4):179-183, April (1936)
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library, J-M no. 005252. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This article was an insurance report, not a medical study. The author, general manager of a casualty and surety insurers' association, described what workers' compensation insurance for occupational diseases, especially silicosis and asbestosis, was costing. In Massachusetts, after a 1929 court decision held pneumoconioses covered, stone cutting policy years 1926 to 1930 showed 92 pneumoconiosis cases with incurred losses of $288,075, an average of $3,131 per claim. Stone cutting payrolls fell from $3,033,200 to $421,400 over the years shown. The author wrote that these figures indicated coverage costs were causing unemployment, uninsured work, or both. For foundries, a supplementary rate of $2.00 per $100 of payroll, on all employees exposed to a foundry hazard in any risk however classified, was added to the normal premium from December 1, 1933. The author wrote that experience was still too brief to demonstrate conclusions but indicated the rate was inadequate. British experience was described as too brief to be definitely instructive, and asbestosis became compensable there only in 1931. New South Wales and North Carolina arrangements were also outlined. The article gave no medical findings on asbestos exposure.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Descriptive report on workers' compensation insurance rates and claim costs for occupational diseases (an insurance and actuarial overview, not a medical study)
• Who was studied: Insurance rate and claim experience for occupational disease compensation: Massachusetts stone cutting and foundry risks, British compensation schemes, the New South Wales silicosis scheme, and North Carolina rating classifications, up to about 1935
• Exposure: Occupational dust hazards giving rise to compensation claims for silicosis, asbestosis and other pneumoconioses (stone cutting, foundries, asbestos goods manufacturing, mining and similar trades). The article analyses insurance costs, not exposure levels.
• Main results:
  • In Massachusetts, pneumoconioses (including silicosis) were held to be covered by workers' compensation only after the 1929 Supreme Judicial Court decision in Sullivan's Case.
  • Under Massachusetts stone cutting classification 1803, policy years 1926 to 1930 showed a total of 92 pneumoconiosis cases, with an incurred loss of $288,075 and an average claim cost of $3,131. The scan prints these as 's288.075' and '$3.131'; the periods stand for commas, as the article's own arithmetic confirms (288,075 divided by 92 is about 3,131).
  • Payrolls in the Massachusetts stone cutting industry fell from $3,033,200 in the first policy year shown to $421,400 in the last. The scan prints these as '$3.033.200' and '421.400', and the year labels are garbled.
  • For Massachusetts foundry hazards, a proposed supplementary occupational disease rate of $4.00 per $100 of payroll was not approved. Instead, a supplementary rate of $2.00 per $100 took effect December 1, 1933. It applied to the payroll of all employees exposed to a foundry hazard in any risk, however classified, and was charged in addition to the normal premium for the classification.
  • In the Glenwood Range Company case, some 42 employees were discharged after medical examination reported them already affected with silicosis. Generally these men were not disabled, and nearly all were eventually taken back.
  • Experience was still too brief to demonstrate conclusions, but the author wrote that it indicated the $2.00 foundry rate was inadequate. This was especially so after a 1935 act added a life pension after the former 500-week limit for permanent total disability.
  • In Great Britain, asbestosis became compensable only in 1931.
  • The New South Wales silicosis scheme applied to stonemasons, quarrymen, rock choppers and sewer miners in Cumberland County. It was paid from a public fund financed by levies on employers and by state subventions.
  • North Carolina's manual rates listed classifications with silicosis or asbestosis hazards, including asbestos goods manufacturing (code 1232). The rate figures are garbled in the scan.
• The authors' conclusion: The author wrote that the Massachusetts stone cutting figures indicated the cost of occupational disease coverage was either causing unemployment, or causing men to keep working without compensation insurance protection, or both.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • British experience was not broad and had been too brief to be definitely instructive.
  • Massachusetts experience with foundry losses was too brief and inadequate to serve by itself as a basis for rate making.
  • Experience with the $2.00 foundry rate was too brief to demonstrate conclusions.
  • The North Carolina rates were highly tentative or speculative, being based on estimates made in advance of experience.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Occupational Disease, Silicosis, Pneumoconiosis, Asbestos Exposure.

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