Kansas- STATUTES
ARTICLE 5a.
OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES
44-5a01.
Occupational diseases; treated as injuries by accident under workers'
compensation act; defined; limitations of liability; aggravations.
(a) Where the
employer and employee or worker are subject by law or election to the
provisions of the workers' compensation act, the disablement or death of
an employee or worker resulting from an occupational disease as defined
in this section shall be treated as the happening of an injury by
accident, and the employee or worker or, in case of death, his or her
dependents shall be entitled to compensation for such disablement or
death resulting from an occupational disease, in accordance with the
provisions of the workers' compensation act as in cases of injuries by
accident which are compensable thereunder, except as specifically
provided otherwise for occupational diseases.
(b) 'Occupational
disease' shall mean only a disease arising out of and in the course of
the employment resulting from the nature of the employment in which the
employee was engaged under such employer, and which was actually
contracted while so engaged. 'Nature of the employment' shall mean, for
purposes of this section, that to the occupation, trade or employment in
which the employee was engaged, there are attached particular and
peculiar hazards of such disease which distinguishes the employment from
other occupations and employments, and which creates a hazard of such
disease which is in excess of the hazard of such disease in general. The
disease must appear to have had its origin in a special risk of such
disease connected with the particular type of employment and to have
resulted from that source as a reasonable consequence of the risk.
Ordinary diseases of life and conditions to which the general public is
or may be exposed to outside of the particular employment, and hazards
of diseases and conditions attending employment in general, shall not be
compensable as occupational diseases: Provided, that compensation
shall not be payable for pulmonary emphysema or other types of emphysema
unless it is proved, by clear and convincing medical evidence to a
reasonable probability, that such emphysema was caused, solely and
independently of all other causes, by the employment with the employer
against whom the claim is made, except that, if it is proved to a
reasonable medical probability that an existing emphysema was aggravated
and contributed to by the employment with the employer against whom the
claim is made, compensation shall be payable for the resulting condition
of the worker, but only to the extent such condition was so contributed
to and aggravated by the employment.
(c) In no case
shall an employer be liable for compensation under this section unless
disablement results within 1 year or death results within 3 years in
case of silicosis, or 1 year in case of any other occupational disease,
after the last injurious exposure to the hazard of such disease in such
employment, or, in case of death, unless death follows continuous
disability from such disease, commencing within the period above
limited, for which compensation has been paid or awarded or timely claim
made as provided in the workers' compensation act, and results within
seven 7 years after such last exposure. Where payments have been made on
account of any disablement from which death shall thereafter result such
payments shall be deducted from the amount of liability provided by law
in case of death. The time limit prescribed by this section shall not
apply in the case of an employee whose disablement or death is due to
occupational exposure to ionizing radiation.
(d) Where an
occupational disease is aggravated by any disease or infirmity, not
itself compensable, or where disability or death from any other cause,
not itself compensable, is aggravated, prolonged, accelerated or in any
way contributed to by an occupational disease, the compensation payable
shall be reduced and limited to such proportion only if the compensation
that would be payable if the occupational disease were the sole cause of
the disability or death, as such occupational disease, as a causative
factor, bears to all the causes of such disability or death, such
reduction in compensation to be effected by reducing the number of
weekly or monthly payments or the amounts of such payments, as under the
circumstances of the particular case may be for the best interest of the
claimant or claimants.
(e) No
compensation for death from an occupational disease shall be payable to
any person whose relationship to the deceased employee or worker arose
subsequent to the beginning of the first compensable disability save
only to after born children.
(f) The
provisions of K.S.A. 44-570, as amended, shall apply in case of an
occupational disease. |
