According to Article 2 of “Occupational Safety and Health Act,” the disease, injury, disability or death of workers caused by buildings at the workplace, machinery, equipment, raw material, material, chemical substance, gas, steam, dust, or operational activities and other occupational reasons, are known as occupational accidents, including occupational injuries and occupational diseases.

• Have you ever suffered from occupational disease?

1. Is the time where the symptoms occurred related to work?
2. Do the symptoms deteriorate during work or are the symptoms are alleviated during weekends?
3. Do your colleagues engaging in the same type of work have identical symptoms? 
4. Has the factory recently been using new chemical substance?

If you have the above-mentioned question, please consult with the nearby occupational injury/disease prevention center or the “Occupational Disease Outpatient” to find out if you have suffered occupational disease. 

Principles for Diagnosis of Occupational Disease

The determination of occupational disease requires the prior validation of medically diagnosed disease ( i.e. Herniated Intervertebral Disc discovered from MRI examination ) and the evaluation of the existence of cause of disease related to the work ( i.e. the exposure concentration of lead in operation ) while verifying the relevance between the disease and the occupational factors, in addition to excluding the possibility of other non-occupational factors. 

The principles of diagnosis for occupational disease mainly comprises the following 5 principles :

• Disease evidence
• Evidence of occupational exposure.
• Sequence compliance: Exposure first, followed by disease.
• Known evidence that meets epidemiology.
• Excluding other possible cause of disease.

Seek Medical Assistance for Occupational Injuries and Diseases

In the event of occupational injuries or occupational disease, workers with labor insurance in need of emergency room, outpatient or hospitalization may request for labor insurance occupational injury/disease outpatient form or labor insurance occupational injury/disease hospitalization application form from the personnel department or your company or your union to seek for outpatient or emergency treatment in the hospital and may be exempted for copayment under the health insurance.

In case the workers with labor insurance could not acquire the labor insurance occupational injury/disease outpatient form or hospitalization application form immediately, the workers may present the medical expense reimbursement application, outpatient form or hospitalization application form, voucher and diagnosis to apply for reimbursement from the Bureau of Labor Insurance.

Workers suffering from occupational disease or suspected of occupational accident may consult with occupational disease outpatient at nearby hospitals.