N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-54: "Disablement" defined.

The term "disablement" as used in this Article as applied to cases of asbestosis and silicosis means the event of becoming actually incapacitated because of asbestosis or silicosis to earn, in the same or any other employment, the wages which the employee was receiving at the time of his last injurious exposure to asbestosis or silicosis; but in all other cases of occupational disease "disablement" shall be equivalent to "disability" as defined in G.S. 97-2(9). (1935, c. 123; 1955, c. 525, s. 1.)