Pelletier V. Sec'y HEW

Environmental Conditions at Work. At Step 4, the claimant bears the burden of showing that he cannot return to his previous work. At Step 5, the burden shifts to the Secretary to show the existence of other jobs in the national economy that the claimant can nonetheless perform. To meet her initial burden it was not enough for claimant to show simply that her specific job as an illustrator entailed exposure to smoke and fumes; she would have to show that such exposure would be a condition of this sort of work generally. Remand where the record shows no meaningful inquiry by the ALJ into whether or not it the claimant could engage in her former type of work, technical illustration, without exposure to substances to which claimant is allergic. Although claimant did not raise the issue at the hearing, her original written application for disability stated that she was allergic to rubber cement, paint thinner, and fixative sprays and that the latter two items are used in art departments.