WORKCOVER WA says pleural plaques is now considered a specified occupational disease under the Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981.
This decision means WA has joined Queensland as the only Australian jurisdictions to recognised pleural plaques as an asbestos-related disease.
WorkCover WA says it made its decision based on advice from its Medical Advisory Committee, following consideration of research that suggests a direct causal link between pleural plaques and exposure to asbestos.
The pleura is the membrane lining the lung, and pleural plaques are areas of scar tissue or fibrosis present on the inner surface of the ribcage and diaphragm that are often partly calcified.
This change sees pleural plaques listed in Schedule 3 of the Act, creating a legal presumption in favour of the worker with regard to the disease.
This reverses the onus of proof by placing an obligation on the employer to establish that an occupational disease is not related to the occupation or occupational processes in which an injured worker was engaged.
If a worker contracts pleural plaques, and has been involved in a work-process established as correlating with contraction of the disease, the disease is deemed to have been due to the nature of employment.