Matter of Compensation of Bracke

This is a workers’ compensation claim under the occupational disease law, ORS 656.802 to 656.824. The claimant has a pulmonary disease colloquially referred to as “meat wrappers’ asthma.” The issue is whether an employer may interject the so-called “last injurious exposure” rule as a defense to the worker’s claim where the claimant establishes that she contracted the disease and suffered disability while working for that employer, but that she also worked for subsequent employers under conditions which could have caused the disease.

The claimant worked intermittently as a food market meat…