There are many ways to burn your skin, and not all of them involve fire and direct heat. Some chemicals are so caustic or acidic they eat away the skin and underlying tissue. Getting one of these is just as painful as getting a burn from a fire.
It is logistically and psychologically even worse when you get the burn at work. It immediately introduces worker compensation complications and the fear of a place where you should have been protected. There are things you should know when dealing with this situation.
Chemical Burns: Their Sources
Strong acids, alkaloids, and corrosive or caustic substances will damage your skin, and people working in manufacturing, in labs, or as cleaners often come in contact with these types of chemicals, such as rust remover and drain cleaner. Farmers can also run into substances such as lye. A slim majority of cases come from acids such as hydrochloric acid.
The Physical Damage
Burns are diagnosed by observing a variety of symptoms, and these symptoms are affected by several factors according to Healthline. The most common symptoms are blackened skin (especially with acids), irritation where the chemical touched your skin, and numbness or pain. Getting it in the eyes can cause blurry or lost vision, and swallowing some can lead to cardiac arrest, headache, dizziness, seizures, muscle twitches, and shortness of breath.
How bad this damage is depends on how long you touched the chemical, whether there were open wounds before the contact, what state the chemical is in, the amount and strength of the chemical, and where it touched.
Rules And Regulations
Your boss is supposed to provide a safe environment for work. As an article from the USFOSHA.com puts it, this means training you in hazard communication, in handling the chemical in question, and providing refresher courses.
An employer should also take reasonable precautions to protect you from toxic chemicals, and give you proper safety equipment when dealing with any dangerous thing. Businesses are required to have a safety data sheet on hazardous chemicals and to properly label these according to the Hazard Communication Standard. According to OSHA, a business must pay for personal protective equipment that you use, including chemical protective equipment for when other precautions won’t keep you safe. This equipment has to be comfortable, well-maintained and safe.
Minnesota requires businesses to buy worker’s compensation or become self-insured, so you should be able to tap into this insurance when you are injured on the job. Compensation follows the administrative rules for partial disability schedules laid out in Statute 5223.0240. Chemical burns are treated the same way as heat or fire burns, and they are rated by using a chart called the Lund and Browder.
Your employer and their insurance company must respond to your claim within 30 days, and they must either start paying or say you were denied in 45 days. They can’t just deny benefits without conducting an investigation either, according to the Minnesota Statutes.
They have to pay what the court tells them to pay within 45 days, and they must pay weekly benefits in a timely manner.
Contacting a Minnesota Burn Injury Lawyer
In the best of worlds, businesses follow the safety rules and comply with reporting and payment requirements. Even then, you have a lot to keep up with. It much gets worse when your work or insurance company starts giving you trouble or just don’t know what to do. Fortunately, Swor & Gatto can help you handle the situation. Contact us for more information if you think you have a case and could use our 40 years of expertise, support, and understanding.