Explanatory note

Under the industrial injuries provisions of the Social Security Act 1975, occupational asthma is prescribed as an industrial disease where a person is employed in an occupation involving exposure to any one of a number of sensitising agents. Regulation 2 makes additions to the list of sensitising agents.

Regulation 3 provides in relation to occupational deafness that where on re-assessment of disablement the sensorineural hearing loss is not 50 db or more in each ear disablement shall be re-assessed at less than 20 per cent.

Regulation 4 removes restrictions imposed by regulation 51(3) of the Social Security (Adjudication) Regulations 1984 on the right to appeal to a medical appeal tribunal from the decision of a special medical board on a diagnosis question given on a claim for disablement benefit in respect of pneumoconiosis or byssinosis.