§ 722.119 - Medical presumptions.

Section 411(c) of part B of title IV of the Act establishes a series of presumptions which shall be available to claimants for purposes of determining whether a miner's death or total disability was due to pneumoconiosis. No State workmen's compensation law shall be included on the Secretary's list if it does not provide or if regulations promulgated pursuant to such State law do not make available to claimants presumptions which are equivalent to or less restrictive than those presumptions contained in section 411(c) of the Act as set forth below:

(a) If a miner who is suffering or suffered from pneumoconiosis was employed for 10 years or more in one or more coal mines, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that his pneumoconiosis arose out of such employment;

(b) If a deceased miner was employed for 10 years or more in one or more coal mines and died from a respirable disease, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that his death was due to pneumoconiosis;

(c) If a miner is suffering or suffered from a chronic dust disease of the lung which (1) when diagnosed by chest roentgenogram, yields one or more large opacities (greater than one centimeter in diameter) and would be classified in category A, B, or C in the International Classification of Radiographs of the Pneumoconioses by the International Labor Organization, (2) when diagnosed by biopsy or autopsy, yields massive lesions in the lungs, or (3) when diagnosis is made by other means, would be a condition which could reasonably be expected to yield results described in paragraph (c) (1) or (2) of this section if diagnosis had been made in the manner prescribed in paragraph (c) (1) or (2) of this section, then there shall be an irrebuttable presumption that he is totally disabled due to pneumoconiosis or that his death was due to pneumoconiosis, or that at the time of his death he was totally disabled by pneumoconiosis, as the case may be; and

(d) If a miner was employed for 15 years or more before July 1, 1971, in one or more underground coal mines, and if there is a chest roentgenogram submitted in connection with such miner's, his widow's, his child's, his parent's, his brother's, his sister's, or his dependent's claim and it is interpreted as negative with respect to the requirements of paragraph (c) of this section, and if other evidence demonstrates the existence of a totally disabling respiratory or pulmonary impairment, then there shall be a rebuttable presumption that such miner is totally disabled due to pneumoconiosis, that his death was due to pneumoconiosis, or that at the time of his death he was totally disabled by pneumoconiosis. In the case of a living miner, a wife's affidavit may not be used by itself to establish the presumption. A State shall not apply all or a portion of the requirement of this paragraph that the miner work in an underground mine where it determines that conditions of a miner's employment in a coal mine other than an underground mine were substantially similar to conditions in an underground mine. Such presumption may be rebutted only by establishing that (1) such miner does not, or did not, have pneumoconiosis, or that (2) his respiratory or pulmonary impairment did not arise out of, or in connection with, employment in a coal mine.