Occupational Asthma
Compensation Claims
Check if you can claim compensation
If dust, fumes or chemicals at work left you struggling to breathe, you may be able to claim occupational asthma compensation. We handle these claims on a No Win No Fee basis and will explain your options clearly.
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Can you claim occupational asthma compensation?
The claim turns on one question: was the substance you were breathing something your employer should have been controlling? With occupational asthma the answer is usually that it was. The materials that cause it are known respiratory sensitisers, they appear on safety data sheets, and the law requires exposure to them to be prevented where possible and kept as low as reasonably practicable where it is not.
Having asthma before you took the job does not rule you out either. Work that makes an existing condition significantly worse is treated in the same way as work that caused it from nothing, and that is the point most people get wrong about themselves before they ring anyone.
A condition that builds quietly, then does not go away
Occupational asthma rarely starts with a bad day. It builds through repeated exposure to a substance the body becomes sensitised to, which is why people often work with something for months or years before it affects them at all. Once sensitisation happens, tiny amounts of the same substance can set off an attack.
That slow build is also why so many people put it down to a cough that will not shift, a dusty winter, or getting older. The connection to work is usually made late, and by then the exposure has often continued far longer than it needed to.
people in Great Britain who had worked in the previous year were estimated to have breathing or lung problems they regard as caused or made worse by work
Occupational asthma is one of the conditions included. If an employer failed to control harmful exposure and this caused or worsened your condition, you may be able to claim compensation for its effect on your health and earnings.
The work that causes occupational asthma
HSE reports isocyanates as the most commonly cited cause, followed by flour, with bakers and vehicle paint sprayers among the occupations with the highest rates.
Bakeries and food production
Flour is the second most commonly cited cause after isocyanates, along with the enzymes used in bread making. Bakers, millers and food factory workers are all affected.
Spray painting and vehicle repair
Isocyanates in two-pack paints are the most commonly cited cause of occupational asthma. Body shop sprayers need proper booths and air-fed masks, and claims often follow when neither was provided.
Woodworking and joinery
Hardwood and softwood dust from sawing, sanding and machining, particularly where extraction was missing, broken or simply never switched on.
Healthcare, labs and cleaning
Latex, glutaraldehyde and the chemicals in industrial cleaning products. Nurses, dental staff, lab technicians and cleaners all feature in these claims.
Welding, soldering and metalwork
Welding fume and colophony in solder flux. HSE expects engineering controls such as extraction for all indoor welding, and their absence is often the heart of the claim.
Hairdressing, beauty and nails
Persulphate salts in bleaches and the vapours from acrylic nail systems, in salons where ventilation is often an afterthought.
Better away from work, worse when you go back
That pattern is the signature of occupational asthma, and it is what separates it from asthma that has nothing to do with your job. Symptoms ease over a weekend or a fortnight off, then return within hours or days of going back in. Doctors look for it to make the diagnosis, and so does everyone who assesses the claim afterwards.
It is also the piece of evidence most often lost, because nobody thinks to record it at the time. Anything you write down now is worth more than what you will be able to remember in two years, and it costs nothing to start.
- How your chest is on work days compared with rest days and holidays
- Peak flow readings if your GP or occupational health has given you a meter
- Which jobs or areas make it worse, and what was being used at the time
- Whether masks, extraction or ventilation were provided, working, and actually used
Tell your GP about the link to work as well. It belongs in your medical records, and that is where it does the most good.
- The breathlessness itself and what it stops you doing, at work and at home
- Earnings lost while off sick, and the drop in pay if you have to change trade
- Retraining for work you can safely do, where that is what the future looks like
- Medication, treatment and the travel and care costs that come with it
What these claims have to account for
The hardest part of an occupational asthma claim is rarely the diagnosis. It is what the condition does to a working life. Once you are sensitised, going back to the same substance is usually not an option, and for a baker, a sprayer or a welder that can mean the end of a trade learned over decades.
A claim has to reflect that properly rather than just the cost of an inhaler, which is why we value it on expert evidence about your lungs and your job prospects rather than putting a figure to it early.
Evidence in an occupational asthma claim
There is no accident report to point at, so these claims are built from the employer’s own records and your medical history. Most of it is not in your hands, and getting hold of it is our job.
Left the job already? The employer still has to disclose these records. Moving on does not put them out of reach, and it does not end your claim.
No Win No Fee occupational asthma claims
Starting costs nothing, and if the claim does not succeed you will not pay for our work, subject to the terms of your agreement. If it succeeds, a success fee agreed with you at the outset comes out of the compensation.
Claims are paid by the employer’s insurance rather than by the business itself, which is worth knowing if you are still working there or still know the people who are.
You will see the full terms in writing before anything is signed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know before starting your claim.
Can I claim occupational asthma compensation?
If your asthma was caused or made significantly worse by something you breathed in at work, and your employer did not control that exposure properly, then a claim is usually possible. You will need a diagnosis linking the condition to work, which the claim itself can help establish. A free conversation with our team will tell you honestly whether yours is worth pursuing.
I already had asthma. Does that stop me claiming?
No. A claim can be made where work has significantly worsened asthma you already had, not only where it caused it from nothing. The medical evidence looks at how your breathing was before the exposure and how it is now, and the compensation reflects the difference rather than the whole condition. This is the most common reason people wrongly decide they have no claim.
What if I still work there?
Plenty of our clients are still in the job. The claim is dealt with by the employer’s insurer rather than coming out of the business, and the law protects employees from being treated unfairly for bringing an honest claim. If you are worried about how it will be received, say so at the start and we will talk it through before anything is sent.
How long do I have to claim occupational asthma compensation?
Usually three years, but with a disease the clock does not start on some accident date. It runs from when you first knew, or reasonably should have known, that your breathing problem was linked to your work, which is often the day a doctor first made the connection rather than the day the exposure happened. Courts also have a discretion to allow claims outside that period, so ask before assuming you are too late.
Can I claim if I was agency or self-employed?
Often, yes. Duties to control hazardous substances are owed to people affected by the work, not only to direct employees, so the business running the site can be responsible for agency staff, contractors and self-employed workers on its premises. Who exactly is liable depends on who controlled the conditions, and that is a question for us rather than for you.
How much compensation could I receive?
It depends far more on your working life than on the diagnosis itself. Someone who can stay in their trade with better controls and someone who has to leave a skilled job at fifty are in very different positions, even with similar lung function. We value claims from the respiratory evidence and a proper look at your earnings, which is why we will not quote a figure before either exists.
Check if you can make a claim
Tell us what you worked with and when your breathing changed. You do not need a diagnosis in writing or the name of a chemical to get started, and there is no obligation to go ahead.
- Free, no-obligation review
- No Win No Fee available
- SRA-regulated solicitors
Check if you can make a claim
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Not sure if you have a claim?
Most people who call us have spent a long time putting their breathing down to something else. Tell us what you worked with and we will give you an honest answer about occupational asthma compensation, free and with no obligation. Time limits usually run from when the link to work was first made, so it costs nothing to check where you stand.
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