"I got sick from something at work."

The four records that decide it

1. Safety Data Sheets for every product you worked with. Your employer must maintain them and make them accessible. Request them in writing and keep the request.

2. The hazard communication program and your training records.

3. Air monitoring or industrial hygiene sampling the employer conducted.

4. Your medical surveillance results — blood lead levels, pulmonary function, liver panels — where the substance required them.

Employers must retain employee exposure records for 30 years and medical records for the duration of employment plus 30 years. A worker who left in 2011 can still ask.

How to build a chemical exposure claim.

Name the substance, not the category

"Solvents" and "cleaning chemicals" do not establish anything. The actual product, the manufacturer, and the constituents from the Safety Data Sheet do.

And describe the dose: how much, how often, how long, in what space, with what ventilation, with what protective equipment — and whether it fit and was maintained.

The deadline is usually not what you think

Under § 5412 the date of injury for an occupational disease is when you first suffered disability and knew or should have known it was work-related — not when the exposure happened.

Which is why "I left that job years ago" is so often wrong. More.

But in a death case, § 5406(b) imposes a 240-week outer limit from the date of injury, which in a long-latency disease can expire before the death. There are three exceptions — § 5406(a) opens "Except as provided in Section 5406.5, 5406.6, or 5406.7" — and the one most often missed is § 5406.7, which extends the outer limit to 420 weeks for a death from a § 3212.1 cancer, § 3212.6 tuberculosis, or a § 3212.8 blood-borne infectious disease. § 5406.5 is the asbestosis exception, and § 5406.6 covers HIV-related deaths. More.

Where this comes up

And two things that keep running

§ 5402(c) — up to $10,000 in treatment while the claim is investigated, including while denied.

§ 5402(b) — if liability was not rejected within 90 days of your claim form, the injury is presumed compensable.