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(c) 2010-2024 Jon L Gelman, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

National Asbestos Awareness Week, April 1 to 7, 2015

Designating the first week of April 2015 as ‘‘National Asbestos Awareness Week’’
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. DURBIN, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr.
CARDIN, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. REID, Mr. TESTER, Mr. ISAKSON, Mr.
SCHUMER, Ms. WARREN, Mr. DAINES, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. CRAPO, and
Mrs. GILLIBRAND)

RESOLUTION

Designating the first week of April 2015 as ‘‘National
Asbestos Awareness Week’’.

Whereas dangerous asbestos fibers are invisible and cannot
be smelled or tasted;

Whereas the inhalation of airborne asbestos fibers can cause
significant damage;

Whereas asbestos fibers can cause cancer such as mesothelioma,
asbestosis, and other health problems;

Whereas symptoms of asbestos-related diseases can take 10
to 50 years to present themselves;

Whereas the projected life expectancy for an individual diagnosed
with mesothelioma is between 6 and 24 months; 

Whereas generally, little is known about late-stage treatment
of asbestos-related diseases, and there is no cure for such
diseases;

Whereas early detection of asbestos-related diseases may give
some patients increased treatment options and might improve
their prognoses;

Whereas the United States has substantially reduced its consumption
of asbestos, yet continues to consume hundreds
of metric tons of the fibrous mineral each year for use
in certain products throughout the United States;

Whereas asbestos-related diseases have killed thousands of
people in the United States;

Whereas while exposure to asbestos continues, safety and prevention
of asbestos exposure already has significantly reduced
the incidence of asbestos-related diseases and can further reduce 
the incidence of such diseases;

….
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Mesothelioma Award for Household Contact of Talc Worker Upheld for $1.6

A $1.6 Million  award for a household contact of an asbestos worker was affirmed by a NJ Court of Appeals. The child of a Shulton employee was exposed to talc (Old Spice Talcum Powder) containing asbestos when the father brought home asbestos dust.

"In July 2012, plaintiffs Steven G. Kaenzig and Linda Kaenzig filed an asbestos litigation complaint asserting claims of negligence and products liability against several defendants, including Whittaker, Clark & Daniels, Inc. (defendant).1 Defendant was the primary supplier of raw talc to Shulton, Inc., the company that owned the Mays Landing facility (the facility) where the asbestos-contaminated Old Spice and Desert Flower talcum powder was produced. Plaintiffs alleged that Steven contracted mesothelioma as a result of his exposure to the talc, through contact with his father, who worked at the facility from 1967 to 1975.

"Defendant filed several pretrial motions, including a motion to compel plaintiffs to produce testing data and reports prepared by an expert, whom plaintiffs had consulted but did not intend to call at trial, on three "vintage" samples of Old Spice and Desert Flower talcum powder products. The judge denied the motion, but ordered plaintiffs to provide defendant with the samples. The judge also denied defendant's motions to exclude testimony by plaintiffs' experts Sean Fitzgerald, a geologist, and Jacqueline Moline, M.D., but barred Fitzgerald's testimony as to his testing of the "vintage" samples he had received from the non-testifying consulting expert.

"Following a trial in October and November 2013, a jury awarded plaintiffs $1.6 million in compensatory damages. On appeal, defendant challenges several pretrial and trial evidentiary rulings, and the denial of its motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) and a new trial. After reviewing the record in light of the contentions advanced on appeal, we affirm.

STEVEN G. KAENZIG v. CHARLES B. CHRYSTAL COMPANY INC.

Ebola Test Vaccines Appear Safe in Phase 2 Liberian Clinical Trial

The National Institutes of Health has announced the advancement of two experimental vaccines for Ebola. This is a major announcement that will provide additional safety for healthcare workers and populations exposed to this deadly disease. niaid.nih.gov/

Liberia-U.S. Partnership Planning Phase 3 Trial and Study of Ebola Survivors

Two experimental Ebola vaccines appear to be safe based on evaluation in more than 600 people in Liberia who participated in the first stage of the Partnership for Research on Ebola Vaccines in Liberia (PREVAIL) Phase 2/3 clinical trial, according to interim findings from an independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board review. Based on these findings, the study, which is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, may now advance to Phase 3 testing.

“We are grateful to the Liberian people who volunteered for this important clinical trial and encouraged by the study results seen with the two investigational Ebola vaccine candidates,” said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “Now we must move forward to adapt and expand the study so that ultimately we can determine whether these experimental vaccines can protect against Ebola virus disease and therefore be used in future Ebola outbreaks.”

The PREVAIL trial, which began on Feb. 2, 2015 in Monrovia, Liberia, is testing the safety and efficacy of the cAd3-EBOZ candidate vaccine co-developed by NIAID scientists and GlaxoSmithKline, and the VSV-ZEBOV candidate vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and licensed to NewLink Genetics Corporation and Merck. Volunteers are assigned at random to receive a single injection of the NIAID/GSK (cAd3-EBOZ) vaccine, the VSV-ZEBOV vaccine, or a placebo (saline) injection. The trial is also double-blinded, meaning that neither study subjects nor staff know whether a vaccine or placebo was administered. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial is considered the “gold standard” in clinical research.

While the initial enrollment goal in the Phase 2 study has been met and the vaccines proven safe, the researchers are continuing Phase 2 study enrollment at Redemption Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, through late April 2015. This would boost enrollment in the Phase 2 portion of the trial to approximately 1,500 people and would be done, in part, to increase the percentage of women (currently, about 16 percent) in the study for a more robust data set overall. The study follow-up period would be at least one year, and two additional blood samples would be obtained from all volunteers at six and 12 months post-vaccination to determine the durability of the immune responses. These proposed changes will be discussed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and are under review by the institutional review boards in Liberia and the United States.

Investigators planned to enroll 27,000 people in Liberia at risk of Ebola infection in the Phase 3 portion of the trial. However, there has been only one new confirmed case of Ebola infection in the country since Feb. 19, 2015. Given this decline in Ebola infection incidence, the trial leaders—H. Clifford Lane, M.D., NIAID deputy director for clinical research, and Liberian co-principal investigators Stephen Kennedy, M.D., and Fatorma Bolay, Ph.D.—have determined that it is scientifically appropriate to expand the trial to additional sites in other West African countries. Discussions are underway to explore that possibility.

The Liberia-U.S. research team also plans to launch a separate natural history study of Ebola survivors to better understand the after-effects of Ebola virus disease. Four sites in Monrovia, Liberia and locations in the United States may begin enrollment into this study in the coming months, pending regulatory review and approval. More information on this study will be provided when the trial launches.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Does Workers' Compensation Really Have a Place in the iEverything World?

I started my day watching the video of the launch of Apple's iWatch. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, and his team never disappoints with the rollout of amazing new technology. Even the non-believers will be enthralled.

The implementation of Apple's technology is based upon widespread adoption. In the case of linking the iPhone and the iWatch to an iEverything platform they are relying upon the basic instinct for humans to survive and live healthier and longer.

Apple is making a massive move into medicine on a global basis. They are expanding internationally on all fronts including research projects with the world's top medical facilities and training institutions. It is awesome.

Apple is adopting to the changing world. It is helping to change the world simultaneously. The tech company is not stagnated by old technology or systems.

The nation's workers' compensation program is a century old. The system was a good fit for an old market. The system created in 1911 worked well in times that no longer exists today.

I can't get onto my computer without reading about the workers' compensation system being pounded by all factions and stakeholders. The elements and issues that created the nation's workers' compensation program for the most part no longer exist.

Robert Reich wrote this week that technological advancements have automated the workplace. Fewer people are required to do tasks and that number decreases daily. "New technologies aren’t just labor-replacing. They’re also knowledge-replacing."

Last week I had the opportunity to hear Thomas Friedman, Foreign Affairs Columnist of the NY Times, speak about how the world has changed only in the last couple of decades. He talked about what must be done today to meet the realities of the future.

Friedman reflected on Moore's Law,  named after the co-founder of Intel Corporation, Gordon E. Moore. Moore observed that the speed and power of microchips will double every 24 months.

"The really big thing that just happened" Thomas Friedman observed is that, "the Market, Mother Nature and Moore's Law, just went into hyper-acceleration." 

When you apply the observations of both Reich and Friedman to a century-old social remedial program operating as workers' compensation,  a basic question arises. Does the present workers' compensation system really have a place any longer in the iEverything world?





World TB Day — March 24, 2015

Workers who suffer from work-related tuberculosis maybe entitled to benefits under the NJ Workers' Compensation Act. The increased risk for occupational exposure to tuberculosis (TB) is recognized among health care and other workers exposed to persons with active TB and workers exposed to silica or other agents that increase the progression from latent to active TB. CDC Proportionate Mortality from Pulmonary Tuberculosis Associated With Occupations—28 States, 1979–1990. MMWR 1995; Vol. 44/No. 1:14-19.

A worker who was said to have had a pre-existing dormant tuberculosis was permitted to recover workers' compensation benefits as a result of working in an atmosphere containing impurities which were said to have reactivated the tuberculosis condition. Dawson v. E. J. Brooks & Co., 134 N.J.L. 94, 45 A.2d 892 (1946).

Where a 42 year-old worker was required to operate a rapidly propelled grinding wheel and was exposed to dust from the operation, recovery for the aggravation of a “pre-existing latent tuberculosis” was allowed. The medical witness asserted that the grinding wheel produced an excessive amount of dust which, in turn, caused a severe bronchitis resulting in irritation of the lung tissues and increased coughing, causing an aggravation of the underlying tuberculosis. Reynolds v. General Motors Corporation, 38 N.J.Super. 274, 118 A.2d 724 (Co.1955), aff'd 40 N.J.Super. 484, 123 A.2d 555 (App.Div.1956).

A foundry worker who suffered silicosis in the course of his employment as a molder was permitted recovery based upon the theory that the silicosis aggravated the petitioner's dormant tuberculosis condition. Masko v. Barnett Foundry & Machine Co., 53 N.J.Super. 414, 147 A.2d 579 (App.Div.1959), certif. denied 29 N.J. 464, 149 A.2d 859 (1959).

An individual working in a ribbon factory who was exposed to dust and fumes from carbon paper, teletype, and typewriter ribbons was permitted to recover disability as a result of the activation of an underlying tuberculosis condition by the dust and fumes. Bond v. Rose Ribbon & Carbon Mfg. Co., 78 N.J.Super. 505, 189 A.2d 459 (App.Div.1963), certif. granted 40 N.J. 499, 193 A.2d 137 (1963), aff'd 42 N.J. 308, 200 A.2d 322 (1964).

Each year, World TB Day is observed on March 24. This annual event commemorates the date in 1882 when Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB). World TB Day provides an opportunity to raise awareness about TB-related problems and solutions and to support worldwide TB control efforts.

For the second year, CDC supports the theme "Find TB. Treat TB. Working together to eliminate TB." Health officials in local and state TB programs are encouraged to provide educational awareness regarding TB to their communities and to work with other agencies and organizations that care for those most at risk for TB.

In 2014, a total of 9,412 new cases of TB were reported in the United States, a rate of 3.0 per 100,000 population (1). Although the total number of TB cases continues to decline, 2014 showed the smallest decline in incidence in over a decade. Nationally, TB still persists at greater incidence in foreign-born persons and racial or ethnic minorities.

CDC is committed to a world free from TB. Initiatives to improve awareness, testing, and treatment of latent TB infection and TB disease among groups at high risk are critical to achieve elimination of TB in the United States.

Additional information regarding World TB Day and CDC's TB elimination activities is available at http://www.cdc.gov/tb/events/worldtbday.

Reference

​1) ​Scott C, Kirking HL, Jeffries C, Price SF, Pratt R. Tuberculosis trends—United States, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2015;64:265–9

….
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Is The Reserve Offset Heading for Extinction?

The Obama Administration is proposing stricter collection of workers' compensation payments data of Social Security beneficiaries.

Social Security-Budget Estimates and Related Information
Budget Overview, February 2015

"10. Establish Workers’ Compensation Information Reporting. Current law requires SSA to reduce an individual’s Disability Insurance (DI) benefit if he or she receives workers’ compensation (WC) or public disability benefits (PDB). SSA currently relies upon beneficiaries to report when they receive these benefits. This proposal would improve program integrity by requiring states, local governments, and private insurers that 23 administer WC and PDB to provide this information to SSA. Furthermore, this proposal would provide for the development and implementation of a system to collect such information from states, local governments, and insurers."

FY 2016 BUDGET OVERVIEW, p. 22
http://www.ssa.gov/budget/FY16Files/2016BO.pdf

With that information, the SSA can determine if the Federal Government is accurately calculating the Federal SSA/Workers' Compensation setoff.

 The obvious inequity, cost shifting, exists in those states where a reverse offset is taken. In those states, ie. NJ, the workers' compensation insurance company takes the offset credit, and NOT the Federal Government (SSA).

The collection and publication of this data will verify the inequity between States and the cost shifting to the Federal government in some states and not others.  A demand for the elimination of this inequity may result in the extinction of the Reverse Offset.

See:  The Gift That Keeps Giving: The SSA Reverse Offset

Sunday, March 8, 2015

The Switch to Daylight Savings Time Results in More Workplace Accidents

Researchers have reported that the switch to Daylight Savings Time (DST), moving clocks forward one hour ahead, is dangerous to the health of workers. Today marks yet another year when the US law mandates moving clocks one hour.

"...two researchers from Michigan State University have conducted a research project that could well contain the warning “Beware of the days after the change to Daylight Savings Time,” the second Sunday in March when an hour of sleep is lost as clocks jump ahead.

Using U.S. Department of Labor and Mine Safety and Health Administration data, Christopher Barnes and David Wagner, both doctoral candidates studying industrial and organizational psychology, found that the number of workplace accidents spikes after Daylight Savings Time changes every March.

On the other hand, they found no significant increase in workplace accidents or sleep loss when the clocks were set back an hour in November.

In two separate studies, they found that the March switch to Daylight Savings Time resulted in 40 minutes less sleep for American workers, a 5.7 percent increase in workplace injuries and nearly 68 percent more work days lost to injuries."

Click here to read the entire article.

See also, "Changing to Daylight Saving Time Cuts Into Sleep and Increases Workplace Injuries," Christopher M. Barnes, PhD, and David T. Wagner, PhD, Michigan State University; Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 94, No. 5

"Daylight Saving Time Transitions and Road Traffic Accidents", Tuuli Lahti et al., Journal of Environmental and Public Health, Volume 2010 (2010), Article ID 657167, 3 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2010/657167


Related articles

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Union, Environmental Group Say Dozens of Nuclear Workers Suffering from Toxic Materials Exposure

Evidence “strongly suggests a causal link between chemical vapor releases and subsequent health effects" at a Washington facility, according to a recent report. (Ellery / Wikimedia Commons)
Since March 2014, nearly 60 workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state have sought medical attention for on-the-job exposure to chemical vapors released by highly toxic waste stored at the site, some as recently as August. At a public meeting held Wednesday in Pasco, Washington, Hanford workers described symptoms that include chronic headaches, respiratory problems, nerve damage and bloody urine.
The meeting, hosted by the United Association (U.A.) of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 598 and Hanford Challenge, a Seattle-based environmental watchdog group, was convened following the February 10 release by Department of Energy contractor Washington River Protection Services (WRPS) of a “corrective action implementation plan.” This plan was developed in response to recommendations in a report from the Savannah River National Laboratory released in October 2014.
Commissioned in response to worker exposures at Hanford’s tank farms, the Savannah River report found ongoing emissions of toxic chemical vapors from waste tanks, inadequate worker health and safety procedures and evidence that “strongly suggests a causal link between chemical vapor releases and subsequent health effects.”
The underground storage tanks—known as...
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The Extra Cost Of Extra Weight For Older Adults

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

Bayou La Batre calls itself the seafood capital of Alabama. Residents here depend on fishing and shrimping for their livelihood, and when they sit down to eat, they like most things fried.

It’s here that former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin has been trying to reverse the nation’s obesity epidemic one patient at a time. Benjamin grew up near Bayou La Batre and has run a health clinic in this town of seafood workers and ship builders since 1990. As obesity became commonplace around the U.S., health care providers like Benjamin began seeing the impacts of obesity all around them.

“We saw our patient population get heavier,” Benjamin said. “We saw chronic diseases start to rise, and if we continued, our entire community would totally be crippled, basically, based on chronic diseases.”

Two major trends are on a collision course here, as in the rest of the United States: a decades-long surge in obesity and the aging of the U.S. population. Today, one out of every three adults in the U.S. are clinically obese, and many who have lived for decades with excess weight, diabetes and heart disease are now heading into their senior years. Obese people are far more likely to become sick or disabled as they age, and researchers say this burgeoning demographic will strain hospitals and nursing homes.

“We’re potentially going to have a larger, older population that’s more likely to be obese,...


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Injured Workers Suffer As 'Reforms' Limit Workers' Compensation Benefits

Jeff Swensen for ProPublica

Dennis Whedbee's crew was rushing to prepare an oil well for pumping on the Sweet Grass Woman lease site, a speck of dusty plains rich with crude in Mandaree, N.D.

It was getting late that September afternoon in 2012. Whedbee, a 50-year-old derrick hand, was helping another worker remove a pipe fitting on top of the well when it suddenly blew.

Oil and sludge pressurized at more than 700 pounds per square inch tore into Whedbee's body, ripping his left arm off just below the elbow. Co-workers jury-rigged a tourniquet from a sweatshirt and a ratchet strap to stanch his bleeding and got his wife on the phone.

"Babe," he said, "tell everyone I love them."

It was exactly the sort of accident that workers' compensation was designed for.

Until...


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The workers’ compensation system is broken — and it’s driving people into poverty

There’s a good news/bad news situation for occupational injuries in the United States: Fewer people are getting hurt on the job. But those who do are getting less help.

That’s according to a couple of important new reports out Wednesday on how the system for cleaning up workplace accidents is broken -- both because of the changing circumstances of the people who are getting injured, and the disintegration of programs that are supposed to pay for them.

The first comes from the Department of Labor, which aims to tie the 3 million workplace injuries reported per year -- the number is actually much higher, because many workers fear raising the issue with their employers -- into the ongoing national conversation about inequality. In an overview of research on the topic, the agency finds that low-wage workers (especially Latinos) have disproportionately high injury rates, and that injuries can slice 15 percent off a person’s earnings over 10 years after the accident.





“Income inequality is a very active conversation led by the White House,” David Michaels, director of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, said in an interview. “Injuries are knocking many families out of the middle class, and block many low-wage workers from getting out of poverty. So we think it’s an important component of this conversation.”

There are two main components to the financial implications of a workplace injury. The first is the legal...


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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

2016 Budget Proposal Would Require Reporting of Workers’ Compensation Benefits to Social Security Administration

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has been vocal in the past about its difficulty in obtaining information about workers’ compensation benefits. The primary reason that the SSA has been seeking this information is to reduce social security benefits by way of an SSDI/WC offset. The SSDI/WC offset is a calculation used by the SSA to reduce a beneficiary’s SSDI benefit amount if the person is also receiving workers’ compensation benefits. The SSDI/WC offset is different in every state and applies only when the individual's combined monthly amounts of SSDI and workers' compensation are greater than 80% of individual's pre-disability "average current earnings.”

The SSA currently has to rely on beneficiaries to report to the SSA when they receive workers’ compensation or public disability benefits. President Obama’s 2016 budget proposal includes a provision to establish a new federal requirement that workers’ compensation and public disability benefit information be provided by states, local governments, and private insurers to the SSA.

The budget proposal summary includes the narrative below:

Establish Workers’ Compensation Information Reporting. Current law requires SSA to reduce an individual’s Disability Insurance (DI) benefit if he or she receives workers’ compensation (WC) or public disability benefits (PDB). SSA currently relies upon beneficiaries to report when they receive these benefits. This proposal...


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Patients with workers' compensation have inferior outcomes after hip arthroscopy

Patients with worker’s compensation claims had inferior functional outcomes after hip arthroscopy compared with a non-workers’ compensation group, according to study findings.

Over a 2-year period, researchers compared the outcomes of 26 patients with workers’ compensation claims who underwent hip arthroscopy with those of 30 patients who did not have a workers’ compensation claim. All of the patients had at least 6 months’ worth of follow-up data available.

The researchers used the Hip Outcome Score and the modified Harris Hip Score to assess patients’ postoperative functional outcomes.

Wilcoxon test results showed patients in the workers’ compensation group had a significantly lower Hip Outcome Score than the non-workers’ compensation group (66.5 vs. 89.4). However, the between-group difference for modified Harris Hip Score was not considered significant (72.5 vs. 75.6), according to the researchers.

Patients in the workers’ compensation group had an average time between injury to surgery of 11 months, and four patients required additional surgery. One complication, deep venous thrombosis, was diagnosed in the workers’ compensation group at 1 week postoperatively, but this was treated with oral anticoagulation. The non-workers’ compensation group required no additional surgery, nor were any complications reported.

At the most recent follow-up, 15 patients in the workers’ compensation group were able to go...

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Nurse Who Contracted Ebola in the U.S. Sues Her Hospital Employer

The nurse who was the first person to contract Ebola in the United States filed suit on Monday against the Dallas hospital where she worked, saying it knowingly left workers without the training or equipment needed to handle the disease.

The nurse, Nina Pham, 26, was one of two at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who were infected while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who had the virus when he arrived from the West African country of Liberia.

Ms. Pham’s suit, filed in State District Court in Dallas, accuses the hospital’s parent company, Texas Health Resources, of negligence, fraud and invasion of privacy. Not only did the hospital expose her to a deadly disease, she contends, it also made false statements about her condition and released video of her without her permission.

A Texas Health spokesman, Wendell Watson, said Ms. Pham was “still a member of our team,” and declined to address the specific claims. He added, “We remain optimistic that we can resolve this matter.”

Ms. Pham has been free of Ebola for months, but she has lingering medical and emotional problems, and the long-term consequences remain unclear, said her lawyer, Charla Aldous.

“She still has fatigue and body aches,” and has not been able to return to work, Ms. Aldous said. “She’s been having some liver problems. Her hair started falling out.”

Mr. Duncan went to the hospital’s emergency room on Sept. 25 with fever, nausea and abdominal pain,...


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Union, Environmental Group Say Dozens of Nuclear Workers Suffering from Toxic Materials Exposure

Evidence “strongly suggests a causal link between chemical vapor releases and subsequent health effects" at a Washington facility, according to a recent report. (Ellery / Wikimedia Commons)

Since March 2014, nearly 60 workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state have sought medical attention for on-the-job exposure to chemical vapors released by highly toxic waste stored at the site, some as recently as August. At a public meeting held Wednesday in Pasco, Washington, Hanford workers described symptoms that include chronic headaches, respiratory problems, nerve damage and bloody urine.

The meeting, hosted by the United Association (U.A.) of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 598 and Hanford Challenge, a Seattle-based environmental watchdog group, was convened following the February 10 release by Department of Energy contractor Washington River Protection Services (WRPS) of a “corrective action implementation plan.” This plan was developed in response to recommendations in a report from the Savannah River National Laboratory released in October 2014.

Commissioned in response to worker exposures at Hanford’s tank farms, the Savannah River report found ongoing emissions of toxic chemical vapors from waste tanks, inadequate worker health and safety procedures and evidence that “strongly suggests a causal link between chemical vapor releases and subsequent health effects.”

The underground storage tanks—known as...

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Exxon Mobil Refinery Blast Comes As US Industries Grapple With Safety Concerns: Union, Enviro Groups Say

A Feb. 18 explosion at Exxon Mobil Corp.'s refinery in Torrance, California, is raising new concerns about high risks, weak standards and lax regulatory oversight in the oil refining sector. Reuters

An explosion this week at an Exxon Mobil Corp. refinery near Los Angeles is the latest in a spate of fires to strike U.S. oil plants in the past few years. The refining sector is beset by high risks, weak standards and lax regulatory oversight, labor and environmental groups say, despite recent efforts by U.S. and California officials to clamp down on safety concerns.

“There are inherent hazards in a refinery, but the idea is to keep the risks as low as possible. We don’t think that’s happening sufficiently in the industry,” said Michael Wright, director of health, safety and environment for the United Steelworkers. The Pittsburgh-based union is leading a refinery strike over safety-related and pay disputes.

The blast Wednesday at Exxon’s refinery in Torrance shattered a section of the facility, rained down ash and rattled nearby homes with earthquake-like tremors. Four contract workers suffered minor injuries. The company said it is still investigating the cause of the accident, though initial reports suggest the problem might have started in an ultra-hot cracking unit, which turns crude oil into gasoline.

"The safety and health of our employees, contractors and neighbors remain our top priority," Todd Spitler, an Exxon...




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