As a California worker, you may hear about Valley Fever, especially if you spend time outdoors or around construction sites. Valley Fever, officially called coccidioidomycosis, is a lung infection caused by breathing in spores from soil fungus that lives in certain dry, dusty parts of the state. If you’re exposed on the job and become sick, you’re not alone. Reach out to a work injury attorney in LA for assistance.
How Valley Fever Can Be a Workplace Injury
Not all workers have the same risk for Valley Fever. People who work outdoors or around disturbed soil are much more exposed to the microscopic fungus. This includes construction crews, road and utility workers, farmworkers, excavators, landscapers, and even staff doing maintenance or groundskeeping in dry areas. Correctional staff in certain dusty regions are also at higher risk, especially if their workplace sits in an endemic zone.
Work-Related Risk Compared to Everyday Exposure
While anyone living or vacationing in certain parts of California can pick up Valley Fever simply by being outside during a dusty, windy day, workplace risk is different. If your job puts you regularly into contact with extremely dusty settings, digging earth, or cleaning up on undeveloped land, the chances of inhaling coccidioidomycosis fungal spores can go far beyond what the average person faces.
For workers’ compensation, the difference between “environmental exposure” and a job-related illness often hinges on showing that the activity leading to exposure was required as part of your regular employment.
Claiming Workers’ Compensation for Valley Fever
Claiming workers’ comp for Valley Fever in California is possible, but often much trickier than for a typical injury.
Showing Workplace Exposure
The strongest cases for Valley Fever work comp claims happen when you can point to regular tasks in high-risk regions, like working outdoors, handling soil, or operating machinery that generates dust. Many claims are supported with job assignments, location records, and job descriptions highlighting dusty or excavation-heavy environments.
Linking Timeline and Symptoms
Carefully record when symptoms appeared and how rapidly they worsened compared to days off or periods away from dusty workplaces. Keeping track of this helps connect your health problems to a likely period of job-based exposure.
Including Employer and Environmental Evidence
Written notes, shift logs, or supervisors who saw you working in hazardous conditions can all build credibility. Health or environmental reports showing your jobsite is located in an area where Valley Fever is widespread (endemic) may help build the connection as well.
Challenges That May Arise With These Types of Claims
Claiming for Valley Fever isn’t always straightforward. You may face hurdles such as:
- Proving Exactly Where and How You Were Exposed: With most injuries, you can point to an exact moment in time that it happened. With an illness like Valley Fever, this generally isn’t possible, which makes establishing causation a bit harder.
- Delayed Symptom Onset: Because Valley Fever might allow fungus to incubate for weeks or months before symptoms arise, connecting illness back to work is more complex, and insurers sometimes exploit this uncertainty.
- Pre-Existing Conditions: If you have previous health issues, like lung or immune problems, insurers may argue that your symptoms are from pre-existing conditions.
Because of these challenges, gathering as much documentation as possible is essential. Working with an experienced Los Angeles workers’ compensation lawyer can be an important step in this process for many people.