Chemical Burn At Work Compensation Claims

Chemical burns can be serious and painful injuries which cause serious damage and which could leave you with long-term consequences. A chemical burn at work could have a serious impact on all areas of your life, from your ability to work or study to your social life. If you have suffered a chemical burn injury in the workplace, you could be owed compensation. In this guide, we look at when and how you could make a chemical burn at work compensation claim.

We also look at what a chemical burn injury is, when you could claim compensation, and how negligent actions could lead to chemical burn injuries.

Additionally, we share what evidence could help you to make a successful claim. We also look at how much compensation you may be awarded and the different damages that could form your final settlement. We end this guide by looking at how one of the personal injury claims solicitors on our panel could help you on a No Win No Fee basis.

For help claiming compensation for chemical burn injuries or to ask any questions you may have, you can contact our team of advisors:

Send a message to our team using our ‘contact us’ page.
Use the online chat on this page.
Call 0800 408 7825 and speak to an advisor.

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What Is A Chemical Burn?

You should always take care when using chemicals and follow the manufacturers’ guidance on their usage. Failure to do so in the workplace could cause chemical burn injuries.

A chemical burn is tissue damage which has been caused by chemicals such as strong acids or alkalines, paint thinner, drain cleaners, gasoline mixed with sea water and numerous other potentially hazardous substances.

When a chemical burn occurs, you will usually be aware of them. However, in some cases, burns caused by a milder chemical may take several hours to develop. Chemical burns may require immediate medical care (first aid) and could require emergency medical treatment.

What Are The Different Types Of Burns?

There are four types of burn injuries, according to the NHS. These are:

Superficial epidermal burns – such burns may be painful, red and swollen. There will be no blisters.
Superficial dermal burns – there is damage to the epidermis and part of the dermis. There may be small blisters as well as being painful and pink.
Deep dermal/ partial thickness burns – the dermis and epidermis are damaged. The skin may become blotchy, red, blistered and swollen. The burn may be painless or painful.
Full thickness burns – the burn will damage the epidermis, dermis and the subcutis. The skin may have been burned away and tissues beneath are blackened.

Continue reading to learn when you may be eligible to make a chemical burn at work compensation claim. You can also contact our advisors to discuss your case.

Can I Claim Chemical Burn At Work Compensation?

In order to make a chemical burn at work compensation claim, you need to show that your employer acted negligently and that they were responsible for any injuries you suffered. Under The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 employers have a duty of care to ensure your safety in the workplace.

If your job role or workplace involves the usage of potentially hazardous materials, your employer may also have a duty of care under The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) and The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992. Your employer should ensure that if you are handling, using or may be exposed to chemicals, they have provided you with the correct training and personal protective equipment (PPE) in order to do so.

All chemical burn claims need to meet the following personal injury claim criteria to be deemed valid:

Your employer owed you a duty of care.
That they have failed to meet this duty of care. For example, they failed to provide you with safety goggles.
Your burn injuries were caused by this breached duty.

Contact our advisors today to see whether you may have a valid chemical burn at work compensation claim.

How Could Negligence Lead To A Chemical Burn Injury?

If your employer has acted in a negligent way you could suffer chemical burns at work. Circumstances in which you could suffer this type of injury may include:

Where an employer has failed to issue you with the right protective equipment, such as protective gloves or footwear. As a result of this, you were injured, this may include suffering a burned hand or severe foot burn due to exposure to a hazardous chemical.
Your employer may have failed to correctly follow guidance on how to store chemicals in the workplace. This caused a container to be damaged and you suffered a chemical burn from a leak.
Your employer failed to give you appropriate training on how to properly use cleaning chemicals for your cleaning job, causing you to suffer burns.

How Often Do Burn Injuries Happen At Work?

According to reports made by employers under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), there were a total of 1,464 non-fatal burn injuries reported across all industries between 2022/23.

The HSE also reports that between 2022/23, 649 reported accidents were caused by exposure to, or contact with a harmful substance.

If you have any questions about chemical burn injury claims, or would like to discuss your own case, you can contact our advisory team today.

What Evidence Could Help Me Claim For Chemical Burn Injuries?

One of the key parts of the accident at work claim process is collecting sufficient evidence to support your claim and prove that another party was liable for your accident and injuries. If you work with a solicitor on your case, they will help you to gather the right type of evidence to give you the best chance of making a successful chemical injury claim.

Some examples of evidence that could be use for personal injury claims for chemical burns at work include:

Videos of the accident taking place, such as CCTV footage.
Photographs of the accident scene and your burn injuries.
The contact information of anyone who witnessed the accident and could provide a statement.
Official reports relating to the accident. These could be records from reporting the workplace accident in your workplace accident book.
Your medical records stating the severity of your burns and your treatments.

To see whether a solicitor from our panel could help you with gathering evidence for your chemical burn at work compensation claim, you can contact our advisors.

How Much Chemical Burn At Work Compensation Could I Receive?

How much compensation you may be awarded will depend on factors such as the injury you suffered, its severity and how it has impacted you. When calculating chemical burn compensation amounts, settlements may be made up of two parts, general damages and special damages.

General damages are awarded for your pain and suffering. They may be calculated using your medical evidence and referring to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). The JCG contains compensation guidelines for a variety of injuries.

The table below uses figures from the JCG, aside from the first entry. Please only use this as a guide as compensation is awarded on a case-by-case basis.

Type Of Injury	Severity	Payout Amount
Multiple serious and severe injuries with special damages.	Severe to serious	Up to £1,000,000
Scarring to other parts of the body	Burns covering 40% of the body.	May exceed £127,920
	A number of noticeable scars or a single scar.	£9,560 to £27,740
	A single scar which is noticeable.	£2,890 to £9,560
Facial disfigurement	Very Severe Scarring	£36,340 to £118,790
	Less Severe Scarring	£21,920 to £59,090
	Significant Scarring	£11,120 to £36,720
	Less Significant Scarring	£4,820 to £16,770

Special damages may also be awarded as part of a chemical burn at work compensation payout. Special damages cover the financial losses caused by your injuries. These include those for:

Lost earnings, both past and future, if you take time off work to recover.
Medical expenses. These expenses could include the cost of medical treatment, medication, rehabilitation and related costs.
Travel costs. The cost of getting to and from medical appointments.
Care costs if you required at-home care from a professional or relative.

Evidence will need to be provided of these losses in order to claim special damages. This could include payslips, receipts, invoices and bank statements.

To receive a free valuation of your potential burn injury compensation payout, you can contact a member of our advisory team.

How Could A No Win No Fee Solicitor Help Me Claim For Chemical Burns?

A specialist No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel could help you to make a chemical burn at work compensation claim. They could assess your case, offer you free legal advice, help with gathering evidence and estimate how much compensation you may be entitled to claim.

Additionally, our panel offer their services on a No Win No Fee basis by offering you a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). With this is place you wont have to paay any fees for their work:

Upfront.
During the claims process.
If the claim ends unsuccessfully.

If your chemical burn claim does succeed, your solicitor will take a success fee from your compensation. However, the law limits the percentage that can be taken as this fee.

To see if you could be eligible to work with one of the solicitors on our panel for your claim, you can:

Phone a member of our team 0800 408 7825
Use our ‘contact us’ page to send a message to our team.
Message us using the online chat below.

Learn More About Claiming For An Accident At Work

These resources provide further information related to claiming for chemical burns:

If you suffered chemical burns to the scalp, you could be entitled to make a chemical burn compensation claim.
Radiation exposure burns can be a serious injury, our team could help you to make a compensation claim.
A burn injury could be caused by a serious accident at work, in this guide we look at when and how you could claim compensation.

Helpful references:

You can find out more about the safe storing of chemicals in this HSE resource.
You may require plastic surgery to treat severe burns.
Learn more about making a COSHH assessment in this HSE resource.

To see if you could make a chemical burn at work compensation claim, please contact us for free using the details above.