20 Employees' Benefits 3 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Death from a respirable disease. 718.303 Section 718.303 Employees' Benefits OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR FEDERAL COAL MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT OF 1969, AS AMENDED STANDARDS FOR DETERMINING COAL MINERS' TOTAL DISABILITY OR DEATH DUE TO PNEUMOCONIOSIS Presumptions Applicable to Eligibility Determinations
ยง 718.303 Death from a respirable disease.

(a)(1) If a deceased miner was employed for ten or more years in one or more coal mines and died from a respirable disease, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that his or her death was due to pneumoconiosis.

(2) Under this presumption, death shall be found due to a respirable disease in any case in which the evidence establishes that death was due to multiple causes, including a respirable disease, and it is not medically feasible to distinguish which disease caused death or the extent to which the respirable disease contributed to the cause of death.

(b) The presumption of paragraph (a) of this section may be rebutted by a showing that the deceased miner did not have pneumoconiosis, that his or her death was not due to pneumoconiosis or that pneumoconiosis did not contribute to his or her death.

(c) This section is not applicable to any claim filed on or after January 1, 1982.