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144.34 INVESTIGATION AND CONTROL OF OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES.
Any physician having under professional care any person whom the physician believes to
be suffering from poisoning from lead, phosphorus, arsenic, brass, silica dust, carbon monoxide
gas, wood alcohol, or mercury, or their compounds, or from anthrax or from compressed-air
illness or any other disease contracted as a result of the nature of the employment of such person
shall within five days mail to the Department of Health a report stating the name, address, and
occupation of such patient, the name, address, and business of the patient's employer, the nature
of the disease, and such other information as may reasonably be required by the department. The
department shall prepare and furnish the physicians of this state suitable blanks for the reports
herein required. No report made pursuant to the provisions of this section shall be admissible
as evidence of the facts therein stated in any action at law or in any action under the Workers'
Compensation Act against any employer of such diseased person. The Department of Health
is authorized to investigate and to make recommendations for the elimination or prevention
of occupational diseases which have been reported to it, or which shall be reported to it, in
accordance with the provisions of this section. The department is also authorized to study and
provide advice in regard to conditions that may be suspected of causing occupational diseases.
Information obtained upon investigations made in accordance with the provisions of this section
shall not be admissible as evidence in any action at law to recover damages for personal injury or
in any action under the Workers' Compensation Act. Nothing herein contained shall be construed
to interfere with or limit the powers of the Department of Labor and Industry to make inspections
of places of employment or issue orders for the protection of the health of the persons therein
employed. When upon investigation the commissioner of health reaches a conclusion that a
condition exists which is dangerous to the life and health of the workers in any industry or factory
or other industrial institutions the commissioner shall file a report thereon with the Department of
Labor and Industry.
History: (4327-1) 1939 c 322; 1975 c 359 s 23; 1977 c 305 s 45; 1986 c 444

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes