Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00009:reg:7
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00009
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 7
Character Range: 1660–3691

7               Kind of injury, disease or death to which this Statement of Principles relates
(1)          This Statement of Principles is about non-freezing cold injury and death from non-freezing cold injury.
Meaning of non-freezing cold injury
(2)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, non-freezing cold injury:
(a)           means               a disease of the sympathetic nerves and blood vessels affecting the tissues of a limb or limbs, most commonly the foot, due to prolonged exposure of the affected part to wet and non-freezing cold conditions; and
(b)          excludes tropical immersion foot, chilblains, frostnip and frostbite.
Note 1: Non-freezing cold injury is also known as trench foot or immersion foot.
            Note 2: Non-freezing cold injury typically is accompanied by coldness and numbness in feet and hands exposed to wet and cold conditions, followed by pain and redness of the affected part on rewarming.  Non-freezing cold injury causes ongoing cold sensitivity, altered sensation and less frequently, neuropathic pain of the affected part.
(3)          While non-freezing cold injury attracts ICD‑10‑AM code T69.0, in applying this Statement of Principles the meaning of non-freezing cold injury 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 non-freezing cold injury
(5)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, non-freezing cold injury, in relation to a person, includes death from a terminal event or condition that was contributed to by the person's non-freezing cold injury.
Note: terminal event is defined in the Schedule 1 – Dictionary.