The American Thoracic Society (ATS) recommends that impairment /disability should take place on two occasions:
Compensation Commissioner guidelines: (see Circular instruction no. 176):
| Score | FEV1 %Predicted |
|---|---|
| 0 | > lower limit of normal (80) |
| 1 | 70 - lower limit of normal |
| 2 | 60 - 69 |
| 3 | 50 - 59 |
| 4 | < 50 |
| * Source: Circular instruction no. 176, Government Gazette (24231), Pretoria, 2003 | |
| Score | Medication |
|---|---|
| 0 | No medication |
| 1 | Occasional bronchodilator, not daily. |
| 2 | Occasional or daily bronchodilators and/or daily low-dose inhaled steroid (< 800 micrograms beclomethasone or equivalent) |
| 3 | Daily bronchodilator and/or daily high dose inhaled steroid (> 800 micrograms beclomethasone or equivalent) and occasional (1- 3/year) course oral steroid. |
| 4 | Daily bronchodilator and/or daily high dose inhaled steroid (> 800 micrograms beclomethasone or equivalent) and frequent (>3/year) course systemic steroid or daily oral steroid. |
| * Source: Circular instruction no. 176, Government Gazette (24231), Pretoria, 2003 | |
| Impairment Total Score | Permanent Disablement |
|---|---|
| 0 - 1 | 15% |
| 2 | 20% |
| 3 | 30% |
| 4 | 40% |
| 5 | 50% |
| 6 | 60% |
| 7 | 70% |
| 8 | 80% |
| Fatal case of OA | 100% |
| * Source: Circular instruction no. 176, Government Gazette (24231), Pretoria, 2003 | |

Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3 – 5: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology by Prof Rodney Ehrlich & Prof Mohamed Jeebhay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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