Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00263:reg:6
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00263
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 6
Character Range: 1441–3889

6               Kind of injury, disease or death to which this Statement of Principles relates
(1)          This Statement of Principles is about exertional heat illness and death from exertional heat illness.
Meaning of exertional heat illness
(2)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, exertional heat illness:
(a)          means an illness caused by an increase in body temperature that exceeds the body's ability to lose heat, due to exposure to physical activity in a setting of high environmental temperatures; and
(b)          includes:
(i)            heat exhaustion (also known as heat fatigue, heat intolerance and heat stress);
(ii)         heat injury;
(iii)       heat stroke; and
(iv)        heat syncope; and
(c)          excludes:
(i)            drug hypersensitivity reactions;
(ii)         exertional hyponatraemia;
(iii)       isolated exertional rhabdomyolysis (without evidence of heat-related illness);
(iv)        malignant hyperthermia associated with anaesthetic agents;
(v)          neuroleptic malignant syndrome;
(vi)        pyrogenic hyperthermia; and
(vii)     serotonin syndrome.
                Note 1: Pyrogenic hyperthermia is an adaptive, physiologic response in which the hypothalamus increases the core body temperature set point. Common causes include infection, inflammation, trauma and cancer.
                Note 2: heat exhaustion, heat injury, heat stroke and heat syncope are defined in the Schedule 1 - Dictionary.
(3)          While exertional heat illness attracts ICD‑10‑AM codes T67.0, T67.1, T67.2, T67.3, T67.4 or T67.5, in applying this Statement of Principles the meaning of exertional heat illness is that given in subsection (2).
(4)          For subsection (3), a reference to an ICD-10-AM code is a reference to the code assigned to a particular kind of injury or disease in The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM), Tenth Edition, effective date of 1 July 2017, copyrighted by the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority, ISBN 978-1-76007-296-4.
Death from exertional heat illness
(5)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, exertional heat illness, in relation to a person, includes death from a terminal event or condition that was contributed to by the person's exertional heat illness.
Note: terminal event is defined in the Schedule 1 – Dictionary.