Here's a tricky one that's been pitched to me and I'm after some feedback from you, my learned colleagues. Here's the scenario (take it on face value with no additional curve balls) - Someone has a known chronic medical condition (e.g. Asthma) and as a part of their work is exposed to stone dust. They wear the correct and approved PPE but after the shift has ended they develop a chest infection that requires medical attention and a number of days off work. Now, this is where I'm scratching my head. Would this be classed as a chronic condition (because of the illness) or an acute condition (because of the aggravation) when taking into account the RIDDOR regs? My gut says that a chronic condition would be the key element thus the classification would not fall into the classification of a Major RIDDOR... But I'm open to constructive feedback if this is a misinterpretation. Thanks in advance.

It is possible to have an acute exacerbation of a chronic condition. A chronic bronchitic will have episodes of acute chest infection, because their underlying condition predisposes to an acute infection, while suffering the underlying chronic condition. So, don't try to separate acute and chronic. They can co-exist. The infection may be an acute exacerbation of the underlying chronic lung disease. How that acute infection was acquired is a separate issue, but the likelihood is that the pre-existing damage increased both the susceptibility and severity of this acute episode.

The diagnosis was Chest infection (acute) If the diagnosis was asthmatic episode then I would class this as chronic. I assume the asthma was a per-existing and follow RIDDOR guidelines item 74 page 78.

Interesting. Many, and I mean a large proportion of, people with chronic pulmonary conditions have also a chronic infection. This may well be dormant for the large part, but may be exacerbated by inhalation of any material which leads to an increase of the existing inflammation. There is also another problem with chronic pulmonary disease, known as colonisation, where the pathogen/s are present more or less permanently.