CHAPTER 603

An Act to amend and reenact § 65-42 of the Code of Virginia, relating
to definitions of occupational diseases.
[H 709]

Approved April 3, 1952

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

a That § 65-42 of the Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted as
ollows:

65-42. As used in this act, unless the context clearly indicates
otherwise, the term “occupational disease” means a disease arising out of
and in the course of the employment. No ordinary disease of life to which
the general public is exposed outside of the employment shall be com-
pensable, except:

(1) when it follows as an incident of occupational disease as defined
in this law; or

(2) when it is an infectious or contagious disease contracted in the
course of employment in a hospital or sanitarium.

A disease shall be deemed to arise out of the employment only if there
is apparent to the rational mind, upon consideration of all the circum-
stances:

(1) a direct causal connection between the conditions under which
work is performed and the occupational disease,

2) it can be seen to have followed as a natural incident of the work
as a result of the exposure occasioned by the nature of the employment,

(3) it can be fairly traced to the employment as the proximate cause,

(4) it does not come from a hazard to which workmen would have
been equally exposed outside of the employment,
(5) it is incidental to the character of the business and not inde-
pendent of the relation of employer and employee, and

(6) it must appear to have had its origin in a risk connected with
the employment and to have flowed from that source as a natural conse-
quence, though it need not have been foreseen or expected before its
contraction.