RIDDOR - Reportable Occupational Diseases

If you have done a First Aid at Work course or attended a Health & Safety training course, you will be aware of RIDDOR - Reporting of Incidents, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence (1995).

Incidents and Dangerous Occurrences are fairly intuitive but what 'diseases' are reportable?   Basically any disease, infection, illness or ill health that is attributable to the work the casualty was doing falls under RIDDOR.   And the list is extensive:

(The following information comes from Schedule 3 of RIDDOR (1995)  IS 1995/3163)

 

Conditions due to physical agents and the physical demands of work

Work with ionising radiation.

  • Inflammation, ulceration or malignant disease of the skin due to ionising radiation.
  • Malignant disease of the bones due to ionising radiation.
  • Blood dyscrasia due to ionising radiation.


Work involving exposure to electromagnetic radiation (including radiant heat).

  • Cataract due to electromagnetic radiation.


Work involving breathing gases at increased pressure (including diving).

  • Decompression illness.
  • Barotrauma resulting in lung or other organ damage.
  • Dysbaric osteonecrosis.


Work involving prolonged periods of handwriting, typing or other repetitive movements of the fingers, hand or arm.

  • Cramp of the hand or forearm due to repetitive movements.


Physically demanding work causing severe or prolonged friction or pressure on the hand.

  • Subcutaneous cellulitis of the hand (beat hand).


Physically demanding work causing severe or prolonged friction or pressure at or about the knee.

  • Bursitis or subcutaneous cellulitis arising at or about the knee due to severe or prolonged external friction or pressure at or about the knee (beat knee).


Physically demanding work causing severe or prolonged friction or pressure at or about the elbow.

  • Bursitis or subcutaneous cellulitis arising at or about the elbow due to severe or prolonged external friction or pressure at or about the elbow (beat elbow).


Physically demanding work, frequent or repeated movements, constrained postures or extremes of extension or flexion of the hand or wrist.

  • Traumatic inflammation of the tendons of the hand or forearm or of the associated tendon sheaths.


Work involving the use of hand-held vibrating tools.

  • Carpal tunnel syndrome.


Hand-arm vibration syndrome

  • The use of chain saws, brush cutters or hand-held or hand-fed circular saws in forestry or woodworking;
  • The use of hand-held rotary tools in grinding material or in sanding or polishing metal;
  • The holding of material being ground or metal being sanded or polished by rotary tools;
  • The use of hand-held percussive metal-working tools or the holding of metal being worked upon by percussive tools in connection with riveting, caulking, chipping, hammering, fettling or swaging;
  • The use of hand-held powered percussive drills or hand-held powered percussive hammers in mining, quarrying or demolition, or on roads or footpaths (including road construction); or
  • The holding of material being worked upon by pounding machines in shoe manufacture.

 

 

Infections due to biological agents

Anthrax.

  • Work involving handling infected animals, their products or packaging containing infected material; or
  • work on infected sites.


Brucellosis.

  • Work involving contact with:
    • animals or their carcasses (including any parts thereof) infected by brucella or the untreated products of same; or
    • laboratory specimens or vaccines of or containing brucella.

 

Chlamydiosis – Avian.

  • Work involving contact with birds infected with chlamydia psittaci, or the remains or untreated products of such birds.


Chlamydiosis – Ovine

  • Work involving contact with sheep infected with chlamydia psittaci or the remains or untreated products of such sheep.


Hepatitis.

  • Work involving contact with:
    • human blood or human blood products; or
    • any source of viral hepatitis.

 

Legionellosis.

  • Work on or near cooling systems which are located in the workplace and use water; or work on hot water service systems located in the workplace which are likely to be a source of contamination.


Leptospirosis.

  • Work in places which are or are liable to be infested by rats, field mice, voles or other small mammals;
    • work at dog kennels or involving the care or handling of dogs; or
    • work involving contact with bovine animals or their meat products or pigs or their meat products.


Lyme disease.

  • Work involving exposure to ticks (including in particular work by forestry workers, rangers, dairy farmers, game keepers and other persons engaged in countryside management).


Q fever

  • Work involving contact with animals, their remains or their untreated products.


Rabies

  • Work involving handling or contact with infected animals.


Streptococcus suis.

  • Work involving contact with pigs infected with streptococcus suis, or with the carcasses, products or residues of pigs so affected.


Tetanus

  • Work involving contact with soil likely to be contaminated by animals.


Tuberculosis

  • Work with persons, animals, human or animal remains or any other material which might be a source of infection.
  • Any infection reliably attributable to the performance of the work specified in the entry opposite hereto.
  • Work with micro-organisms; work with live or dead human beings in the course of providing any treatment or service or in conducting any investigation involving exposure to blood or body fluids;
  • work with animals or any potentially infected material derived from any of the above.

 

Conditions due to substances

Poisonings by any of the following:

  • acrylamide monomer;
  • arsenic or one of its compounds;
  • benzene or a homologue of benzene;
  • beryllium or one of its compounds;
  • cadmium or one of its compounds;
  • carbon disulphide;
  • diethylene dioxide (dioxan);
  • ethylene oxide;
  • lead or one of its compounds;
  • manganese or one of its compounds;
  • mercury or one of its compounds;
  • methyl bromide;
  • nitrochlorobenzene, or a nitroor aminoor chloro-derivative of benzene or of a homologue of benzene;
  • oxides of nitrogen;
  • phosphorus or one of its compounds.


Cancer of a bronchus or lung

  • Work in or about a building where nickel is produced by decomposition of a gaseous nickel compound or where any industrial process which is ancillary or incidental to that process is carried on; or 
  • Work involving exposure to bis(chloromethyl) ether or any electrolytic chromium processes (excluding passivation) which involve hexavalent chromium compounds, chromate production or zinc chromate pigment manufacture.
  • Primary carcinoma of the lung where there is accompanying evidence of silicosis.
  • Any occupation in:  
    • glass manufacture;
    • sandstone tunnelling or quarrying;
    • the pottery industry;
    • metal ore mining;
    • slate quarrying or slate production;
    • clay mining;
    • the use of siliceous materials as abrasives;
    • foundry work;
    • granite tunnelling or quarrying; or
    • stone cutting or masonry.


Cancer of the urinary tract

  • Work involving exposure to any of the following substances: 
    • beta-naphthylamine or methylene-bis-orthochloroaniline; 
    • diphenyl substituted by at least one nitro or primary amino group or by at least one nitro and primary amino group (including benzidine);
    • any of the substances mentioned in sub-paragraph above if further ring substituted by halogeno, methyl or methoxy groups, but not by other groups; or
    • the salts of any of the substances mentioned in sub-paragraphs above.
  • The manufacture of auramine or magenta.

 

Bladder cancer

  • Work involving exposure to aluminium smelting using the Soderberg process.

 
Angiosarcoma of the liver

  • Work in or about machinery or apparatus used for the polymerisation of vinyl chloride monomer, a process which, for the purposes of this sub-paragraph, comprises all operations up to and including the drying of the slurry produced by the polymerisation and the packaging of the dried product; or
  • work in a building or structure in which any part of the process referred to in the foregoing sub-paragraph takes place.

 
Peripheral neuropathy

  • Work involving the use or handling of or exposure to the fumes of or vapour containing n-hexane or methyl n-butyl ketone.

 
Chrome ulceration of the nose or throat or the skin of the hands or forearm

  • Work involving exposure to chromic acidor to any other chromium compound.

  
Folliculitis, Acne or Skin cancer

  • Work involving exposure to mineral oil, tar, pitch or arsenic.

 

Pneumoconiosis (excluding asbestosis)

  • The mining, quarrying or working of silica rock or the working of dried quartzose sand, any dry deposit or residue of silica or any dry admixture containing such materials (including any activity in which any of the aforesaid operations are carried out incidentally to the mining or quarrying of other minerals or to the manufacture of articles containing crushed or ground silica rock); or
  • the handling of any of the materials specified in the foregoing sub-paragraph in or incidentally to any of the operations mentioned therein or substantial exposure to the dust arising from such operations.
  • The breaking, crushing or grinding of flint, the working or handling of broken, crushed or ground flint or materials containing such flint or substantial exposure to the dust arising from any of such operations.
  • Sand blasting by means of compressed air with the use of quartzose sand or crushed silica rock or flint or substantial exposure to the dust arising from such sand blasting.
  • Work in a foundry or the performance of, or substantial exposure to the dust arising from, any of the following operations: 
    • the freeing of steel castings from adherent siliceous substance or;
    • the freeing of metal castings from adherent siliceous substance:
    • by blasting with an abrasive propelled by compressed air, steam or a wheel, or
    • by the use of power-driven tools.
  • The manufacture of china or earthernware (including sanitary earthenware, electrical earthenware and earthenware tiles) and any activity involving substantial exposure to the dust arising therefrom.
  • The grinding of mineral graphite or substantial exposure to the dust arising from such grinding.
  • The dressing of granite or any igneous rock by masons, the crushing of such materials or substantial exposure to the dust arising from such operations.
  • The use or preparation for use of an abrasive wheel or substantial exposure to the dust arising there from.
  • Work underground in any mine in which one of the objects of the mining operations is the getting of any material;
    • the working or handling above ground at any coal or tin mine of any materials extracted therefrom or any operation incidental thereto;
    • the trimming of coal in any ship, barge, lighter, dock or harbour or at any wharf or quay; or
    • the sawing, splitting or dressing of slate or any operation incidental thereto.
  • The manufacture or work incidental to the manufacture of carbon electrodes by an industrial undertaking for use in the electrolytic extraction of aluminium from aluminium oxide and any activity involving substantial exposure to the dust therefrom.
  • Boiler scaling or substantial exposure to the dust arising therefrom.


Byssinosis

  • The spinning or manipulation of raw or waste cotton or flax or the weaving of cotton or flax, carried out in each case in a room in a factory, together with any other work carried out in such a room.

 
Mesothelioma, Lung cancer or Asbestosis

  • The working or handling of asbestos or any mixture of asbestos;
    • the manufacture or repair of asbestos textiles or other articles containing or composed of asbestos:
    • the cleaning of any machinery or plant used in any of the foregoing operations and of any chambers, fixtures and appliances for the collection of asbestos dust;
    • substantial exposure to the dust arising from any of the foregoing operations.


Cancer of the nasal cavity or associated air sinuses

  • Work in or about a building where wooden furniture is manufactured;
  • work in a building used for the manufacture of footwear or components of footwear made wholly or partly of leather or fibre board; or
  • work at a place used wholly or mainly for the repair of footwear made wholly or partly of leather or fibre board.
  • Work in or about a factory building where nickel is produced by decomposition of a gaseous nickel compound or in any process which is ancillary or incidental thereto.

 

Occupational dermatitis

  • Work involving exposure to any of the following agents:
    • Epoxy resin systems;
    • formaldehyde and its resins;
    • metalworking fluids;
    • chromate (hexavalent and derived from trivalent chromium);
    • cement, plaster or concrete;
    • acrylates and methacrylates;
    • colophony (rosin) and its modified products;
    • glutaraldehyde;
    • mercaptobenzothiazole, thiurams, substituted paraphenylene-diamines and related rubber processing chemicals;
    • biocides, anti-bacterials, preservatives or disinfectants;
    • organic solvents;
    • antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals and therapeutic agents;
    • strong acids, strong alkalis, strong solutions (e.g. brine) and oxidising agents including domestic bleach or reducing agents;
    • hairdressing products including in particular dyes, shampoos, bleaches and permanent waving solutions;
    • soaps and detergents;
    • plants and plant-derived material including in particular the daffodil, tulip and chrysanthemum families, the parsley family (carrots, parsnips, parsley and celery), garlic and onion, hardwoods and the pine family;
    • fish, shell-fish or meat;
    • sugar or flour; or
    • any other known irritant or sensitising agent including in particular any chemical bearing the warning “may cause sensitisation by skin contact” or “irritating to the skin”.

 

Extrinsic alveolitis (including farmer’s lung)

  • Exposure to moulds, fungal spores or heterologous proteins during work in: 
    • agriculture, horticulture, forestry, cultivation of edible fungi or malt-working;
    • loading, unloading or handling mouldy vegetable matter or edible fungi whilst same is being stored;
    • caring for or handling birds; or
    • handling bagasse.

 

Occupational asthma

  • Work involving exposure to any of the following agents:
    • isocyanates;
    • platinum salts;
    • fumes or dust arising from the manufacture, transport or use of hardening agents (including epoxy resin curing agents) based on phthalic anhydride, tetrachlorophthalic anhydride, trimellitic anhydride or triethylene-tetramine;
    • fumes arising from the use of rosin as a soldering flux;
    • proteolytic enzymes;
    • animals including insects and other arthropods used for the purposes of research or education or in laboratories;
    • dusts arising from the sowing, cultivation, harvesting, drying, handling, milling, transport or storage of barley, oats, rye, wheat or maize or the handling, milling, transport or storage of meal or flour made therefrom;
    • antibiotics;
    • cimetidine;
    • wood dust;
    • ispaghula;
    • castor bean dust;
    • ipecacuanha;
    • azodicarbonamide;
    • animals including insects and other arthropods (whether in their larval forms or not) used for the purposes of pest control or fruit cultivation or the larval forms of animals used for the purposes of research or education or in laboratories;
    • glutaraldehyde;
    • persulphate salts or henna;
    • crustaceans or fish or products arising from these in the food processing industry;
    • reactive dyes;
    • soya bean;
    • tea dust;
    • green coffee bean dust;
    • fumes from stainless steel welding;
    • any other sensitising agent, including in particular any chemical bearing the warning “may cause sensitisation by inhalation”.

 

Diseases additionally reportable in respect of Off Shore work places

  • Chickenpox.
  • Cholera.
  • Diphtheria.
  • Dysentery (amoebic or bacillary).
  • Acute encephalitis.
  • Erysipelas.
  • Food poisoning.
  • Legionellosis.
  • Malaria.
  • Measles.
  • Meningitis.
  • Meningococcal septicaemia (without meningitis).
  • Mumps.
  • Paratyphoid fever.
  • Plague.
  • Acute poliomyelitis.
  • Rabies.
  • Rubella.
  • Scarlet fever.
  • Tetanus.
  • Tuberculosis.
  • Typhoid fever.
  • Typhus.
  • Viral haemorrhagic fevers.
  • Viral hepatitis.

 

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