Explosion at work: NSW workers compensation guide

Explosion at work can occur through flammable gas, vapour or dust igniting and pressure equipment or a sealed component rupturing. The incident history should identify the task, equipment, location and sequence of events rather than relying on the job title alone.

People commonly exposed include industrial, construction, mining and maintenance workers and laboratory, chemical, battery and fuel-handling workers. Employment records should identify each person's task, employer and position in the work area when the incident occurred.

Medical records after a explosion at work may identify burns injury and hearing loss. Each diagnosis should be linked to the event or exposure and to the worker's actual functional change.

After a explosion at work, immediate reporting and safety records may include emergency response, scene preservation and ignition-source records and process, pressure, chemical and maintenance data. These records can establish what was known at the time without requiring the worker to repeatedly recount a traumatic event.

• SafeWork, fire authority and engineering investigation material where applicable.
• If the facts may meet the WHS Act definition of a notifiable incident, the SafeWork notification reference, inspector correspondence and scene records, without delaying emergency assistance or other action permitted by section 39.

For a explosion at work, the first evidence to preserve includes photographs, process diagrams and failed-component examination and safety data, gas testing, ventilation and work-permit records. It is most useful when dates, people, equipment, duties and later medical histories tell a consistent account.

• Witness distance and orientation to the blast.
• Hearing, brain, burns, respiratory and psychological records.

Medical and psychological evidence after a explosion at work may include first-aid, ambulance and early clinical histories describing the explosion at work sequence and diagnosis-specific examination, imaging and specialist evidence for burns injury, hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, respiratory injury. A diagnosis alone may not answer causation or capacity: the records should explain the work event, symptoms, treatment and practical restrictions.

• Certificates of capacity stating functional restrictions, hours and treatment rather than only a diagnosis.
• Operative, rehabilitation and psychological records where the event caused surgery, prolonged recovery or trauma symptoms.

After a explosion at work, an insurer may dispute which part of the explosion caused each injury and whether delayed hearing, concussion, respiratory or psychological symptoms are related. The written decision should be answered with evidence directed to those stated reasons.

Blast injuries may need audiology, neurological, respiratory, burns and psychological care. Separate diagnoses and treatment goals should be documented rather than described only as explosion trauma. If treatment is disputed after a explosion at work, the request should explain the accepted diagnosis, expected functional benefit and reasonable alternatives.

Work capacity after a explosion at work may turn on noise, pressure systems, ignition sources, enclosed areas and trauma triggers and whether another role avoids the same process and accommodates hearing or cognitive limits. Proposed duties must be compared with the real task demands and the worker's ability to sustain them for the proposed hours.

Each stable body-system consequence uses its NSW method; blast severity cannot be converted directly into WPI. The accident mechanism, surgery, imaging finding or pain report alone does not establish a WPI percentage. Any WPI assessment after a explosion at work occurs after stabilisation under the NSW method for the accepted body system; the accident or surgery alone does not determine a percentage.

Product, premises, process-designer or contractor liability may require separate expert investigation. Any separate occupiers-liability, product, TPD or work injury damages issue is distinct from statutory workers compensation and depends on its own evidence and legal criteria. These issues are separate from workers compensation and depend on the particular facts.

For a explosion at work, assistance may involve separate the explosion at work mechanism from the diagnoses and identify any missing incident record and compare the insurer’s written reasons with medical, treatment and work-capacity evidence. The purpose is to identify the disputed decision and the evidence needed for the next step, not to promise an outcome.