The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of the occupational diseases compensated with the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance that is operated by the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation (KLWC).

Using the KLWC database, we collected 4,240 cases of compensated occupational disease occurring between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2003. We analyzed the characteristics (sex, age, type of occupational disease, exposure material, type of industry and occupation, etc.) of occupational diseases using the KLWC electronic data and compensated with the data of claimed cases investigated by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA).

KLWC approved 4,240 cases, including 1,199 deaths (28.3%). Men accounted for 92.6% (3,925 cases) of the approved cases. The most common age group was 50-59 years of age (n=1,433, 33.8%). The majority of diseases were respiratory diseases (2,906 cases, 68.5%), occupational hearing loss (687 cases, 16.2%), infectious disease (238 cases, 5.6%), intoxication (117 cases, 2.8%), skin diseases (111 cases, 2.6%) and cancer (41 cases, 1.0%). The causal hazardous agents were dust (2,870 cases, 67.7%), physical agents (770 cases, 18.2%), biological agents (301 cases, 7.1%), chemical agents (242 cases, 5.7%), and heavy metals (51 cases, 1.2%). The major types of industry were mining and quarrying (2,708 cases, 63.9%), manufacturing (1,112 cases, 26.2%), health and social work (159 cases, 3.8%) and construction (63 cases, 1.5%). The type of occupation included craft and related trades workers (2,622 cases, 61.8%), elementary occupations (730 cases, 17.2%), senior officials and managers (327 cases, 7.7%) and plant and machine operators and assemblers (225 cases, 5.3%).

We were able to elucidate the kinds of occupational disease and the characteristics of workers through this study. Many compensation cases occurred among non-manufacturing and non-mining workers, especially health care workers, and there were various kinds of disease. This suggests that a management policy must be established to prevent occupational diseases occurring among workers in the above types of industry.