World Forensic Festival, Seoul, South Korea, 12 - 18 October 2014, pp.324
Significance Of The Forensic Medicine In Diagnosing Occupational Diseases In Turkey Introduction : In Turkey,
9.030. 202 employees were registered as insured in 2011. When we look at the number of the work accidents and occupational diseases of the insured employees, we see 69227 work accidents and 697 occupational diseases according to SSK’s (Social Insurance Institution) statistics. When we examine the distribution of these 697 occupational diseases, we see that 68% of them resulted from coal dust. When we talk about occupational diseases in Turkey, the most common diseases are the ones resulting from dust, then comes lead poisoning and occupational skin diseases. According to the figures, the number of occupational diseases is quite few. Clinical forensic medicine is the last decision maker in Turkey in the cases, which entered into judicial process within the concept of occupational diseases, and other diseases related to work. The purpose of our study is to set forth the approach of the forensic medicine in this process.
Material and Method : In our study, we represented the percentage and mean of demographic and clinic features of the cases that were diagnosed as occupational disease by the diagnosis criteria (ILO International Classification of Pneumoconiosis) and the ones that were not among pneumoconiosis cases sent by courts in Turkey between April 2009 and March 2012 to be decided whether they were occupational disease.
Findings : 1526 cases in total between the employers and employees were sent by courts to be examined and decided whether they were occupational diseases. All of the cases were males and all of them were working in coalmines. Whereas 1-10 cases were coming from courts since 2009, it rose up to 93 since 2010. However, none of the 93 cases sent by the court in Mach 2012 was diagnosed as occupational disease. 7.2% (n : 110) of the 1526 cases were diagnosed as pneumoconiosis occupational disease.
Discussion and Conclusion : As a developing country, Turkey has put forth great gures since 2003 with the working areas it offers and the improvement percentage it shows. It has also been struggling with work accidents and occupational diseases by the regulations it has enacted in the area of occupational health and safety. 1700 of the 69, 000 work accidents resulted in death in 2011. Work accidents and occupational diseases are criminal events. For this reason, forensic science experts are consulted for their views during judicial processes. A team of authorities from forensic science expert, chest disease specialist, and public health specialist share their views with the court on these issues. The fact that only 7.2% among the cases sued by courts as pneumoconiosis were diagnosed as occupational disease is quite challenging for occupational health and safety. In our study we discussed all these processes.