A quick question and answer section on what to do in relation to injuries and illness in the workplace.

Q. One of our employees has been diagnosed as having asthma and works with wood dust in a machine shop. Is this a prescribed disease?

A. If it is shown that wood dust has caused the asthma, then yes it is. Asthma due to exposure to wood dust is a miscellaneous condition, number 7(j).

Q. Are prescribed diseases under the Social Security (Industrial Injuries) (Prescribed Diseases) Regulations the same as the reportable diseases contained in RIDDOR?

A. No, some are duplicated but the lists are not identical and some of the related occupations are slightly different.

Q. We keep a copy of the accident book (BI510) locked in the first aid room and a manager makes an entry if someone is injured. Is this correct procedure?

A. No. The duty on employers is to maintain an accident book in which particulars of an accident causing personal injury to an employee can be recorded by that employee or someone on his or her behalf. That person acting on his or her behalf could be a manager but the details entered are intended to be those supplied by the injured person. Should there be a discrepancy between the facts stated by the employee and those found during the investigation (which should be carried out by the employer) the discrepancy should be recorded