Except as otherwise specifically provided, incapacity to work or death of an employee arising out of and in the course of employment and resulting from an occupational disease must be treated as the happening of a personal injury arising out of and in the course of the employment, within the meaning of the former Workers’ Compensation Act or the Maine Workers’ Compensation Act of 1992, and all the provisions of the applicable Act apply to that occupational disease. This chapter applies only to cases in which the last exposure to an occupational disease in an occupation subject to the hazards of that disease occurred in the State and after January 1, 1946. [PL 1995, c. 462, Pt. A, §80 (AMD).]