How to Apply for Mesothelioma Compensation

The claim rate has increased little over the last 20 years, peaking at 43% in 2000. Overall, claim rates were higher for pleural mesothelioma in men (range 27% to 57%). %). Claim rates were highest among people aged 50 to 59 and declined considerably after retirement. There was significant variation in claim rates by region of residence, with the highest rate occurring in Lambton County, Ontario.


If the original claimant on a personal injury claim dies as a result of the disease, family members may be able to step in as plaintiffs. If a claim was never submitted, they may have the option to file a wrongful death claim on behalf of their deceased loved one.


Determine Sources of Injury Do what it takes to uncover former workplaces for clues regarding asbestos exposure. Talk to family members, friends and former co-workers. Look in photo albums and go through old documents for information about former jobs. Check the Internal Revenue Service for a job history. For many people there are also several places where asbestos exposure could have taken place besides work. This could include the hairdresser, the auto repair shop or while doing a loved one’s laundry.

These restrictions regarding compensation eligibility, however, by no means account entirely for the extremely low rate of filing for mesothelioma observed in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada. In addition to these requirements for compensation eligibility, it is possible that the short lifespan of individuals following a mesothelioma diagnosis would make it less likely for a claim be filed (ie, after death). However, families or dependants may apply on the person’s behalf even after death, for entitlement to survivor benefits and, therefore, this should not be a reason for a reduced filing rate.

Previous studies have demonstrated the value of comparing and/or combining administrative occupational databases with cancer registries for the purposes of surveillance and research (1,2). Cancer registries contain information regarding cases of diagnosed cancer but generally lack occupational exposure data, while databases maintained by provincial workers’ compensation boards generally under-report work-related cancers but have workplace exposure data. One such study, performed in the 1980s, compared aggregate data from provincial registries and provincial compensation boards and suggested that the proportion of possible occupational cancers reported to workers’ compensation boards was as low as 10% .Although attributing cancer to occupational exposures is difficult, mesothelioma is considered to be a ‘sentinel’ occupational cancer.

Mesothelioma is a rare and highly fatal morphologically defined cancer that arises in surface serosal cells lining various body cavities; the pleura is the most common site accounting for approximately 90% of all mesotheliomas, followed by the peritoneum (6% to 10%). Less common sites include the pericardium, the tunica vaginalis of the testes and the ovaries . Diagnosing mesothelioma is challenging, and current treatment options are limited and usually performed with palliative rather than curative intent. The median survival time is approximately one year from the date of diagnosis .This highly fatal cancer is also largely preventable, occurring almost exclusively in workers exposed to asbestos. Indeed, the strongest and most common risk factor for mesothelioma is occupational exposure to asbestos. It has been estimated that a minimum of 65% of all mesothelioma cases, and 85% to 90% of male pleural mesothelioma cases can be attributed to occupational asbestos exposure .
Mesothelioma incidence rates, therefore, reflect trends in past occupational exposure to asbestos, for which latency of disease development is in the order of 20 to 40 years after the first exposure (3,4). In addition to the asbestos mining industry, there are other industries in which workers may have been, or can now be, exposed to asbestos, including manufacturing, construction and transportation. Given the high attributable risk for mesothelioma associated with occupational asbestos exposure, it is expected that a higher proportion of diagnosed mesothelioma cases would file for workers’ compensation compared with any other form of cancer.The present study used two data sources, namely, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario (WSIB) Occupational Disease Information and Surveillance System (ODISS), and the Ontario Cancer Registry (OCR), and linked them at the person level. The present study had two objectives: to determine the success rate of linking the WSIB-ODISS database with the OCR, as part of exploring the feasibility of ongoing linkages between these two databases, and to describe the patterns of claims filed for mesothelioma to the WSIB as a function of the disease incidence in Ontario, as a measure of completeness of reporting of potentially work-related mesothelioma.