Medicines Made in India Set Off Safety Worries

NEW DELHI — India, the second-largest exporter of over-the-counter and prescription drugs to the United States, is coming under increased scrutiny by American regulators for safety lapses, falsified drug test results and selling fake medicines.


Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, the commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration, arrived in India this week to express her growing unease with the safety of Indian medicines because of “recent lapses in quality at a handful of pharmaceutical firms.”


India’s pharmaceutical industry supplies 40 percent of over-the-counter and generic prescription drugs consumed in the United States, so the increased scrutiny could have profound implications for American consumers.


F.D.A. investigators are blitzing Indian drug plants, financing the inspections with some of the roughly $300 million in annual fees from generic drug makers collected as part of a 2012 law requiring increased scrutiny of overseas plants. The agency inspected 160 Indian drug plants last year, three times as many as in 2009. The increased scrutiny has led to a flood of new penalties, including half of the warning letters the agency issued last year to drug makers.


Dr. Hamburg was met by Indian officials and executives who, shocked by recent F.D.A. export bans of generic versions of popular medicines — such as the acne drug Accutane,...


[Click here to see the rest of this post]




Found on



Related articles
India to flag market access of drugs and spices with US (vancouverdesi.com)
Indian Regulators to Shadow U.S. FDA on Plant Inspections (bloomberg.com)
A California Lesson: How to Kill Workers' Compensation Pill By Pill (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Prescription-Drug Coupons - No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Khobragade Indicted on Fraud Charges

Today's post was shared by WSJ Law Blog and comes from blogs.wsj.com

Federal prosecutors in New York on Thursday announced the indictment of the Indian official whose arrest last month set off protests in India and strained relations between the nations.

The charges against Devyani Khobragade, though, were delayed amid uncertainty about whether she had fled the country. The consular worker is accused of submitting false documents to get a work visa for a babysitter and housekeeper in her Manhattan home. She has denied all the charges.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, Manhattan prosecutors said that a federal grand jury had voted to return an indictment against the 39-year-old Ms. Khobragade, charging her with two counts — visa fraud and making false statements.

Prosecutors initially said Ms. Khobragade had left the U.S. on Thursday. But they later learned that she may not have gotten on her flight, according to a person familiar with the matter. Her whereabouts were not immediately clear.

The U.S. Marshal’s Office last month said Ms. Khobragade had been strip-searched after she was arrested and “placed in a cell with other female defendants” as part of standard procedure.

Anger over her treatment prompted demonstrations in India and led the Indian government to revoke diplomatic privileges for American officials and remove security barriers near the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.

Attempting to calm the situation, Secretary of State John Kerry last month “expressed his regret, as well as his concern...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]


Related articles
In a First, Northwestern Players Seek Unionization
Amazon May Get Its First Labor Union in the U.S.
Supreme Court case could destroy pillar of union power
NLRB Office of the General Counsel Issues Complaint against Walmart
Knasas, The Next Target: Unions expect difficult legislative session in 2014
Labor faces backlash over BART strikes

Having a Servant Is Not a Right

AT the heart of the fracas surrounding the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York who promised to pay her housekeeper $9.75 per hour, in compliance with United States labor rules, but instead paid her $3.31 per hour, is India’s dirty secret: One segment of the Indian population routinely exploits another, and the country’s labor laws allow gross mistreatment of domestic workers. India is furious that the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, was strip-searched and kept in a cell in New York with criminals. Retaliation from the newly assertive but otherwise bureaucracy-ridden nation was swift. American diplomats were stripped of identity cards granting them diplomatic benefits, and security barriers surrounding the American Embassy in New Delhi were hauled away. A former finance minister suggested that India respond by arresting same-sex partners of American diplomats, since the Indian Supreme Court recently upheld a section of a Colonial-era law that criminalizes homosexuality. Notwithstanding legitimate Indian concerns about whether American marshals used correct protocol in the way they treated a diplomat, the truth is that India is party to an exploitative system that needs to be scrutinized. I grew up in a middle-class household in India in the ’80s; my parents were schoolteachers, and our lifestyle was not lavish by any means. I received new clothes once a year; I don’t recall ever going to a restaurant; our family couldn’t afford a car, so we...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Found on

Related articles

• U.S. Prosecutor Defends Charges Against Indian Diplomat (nytimes.com)
• India maids speak out on diplomat's arrest (usatoday.com)
• Is India overreacting to arrest? (edition.cnn.com)
• India urges US to drop charges against diplomat Devyani Khobragade (theguardian.com)
• Victims of Misclassification (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• "Opting Out" of Worker's Compensation Hurts Workers and Employers (Part 1) (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

A Reference Guide for Controlling Health Hazards to Hospital Workers

The bad news is that hospital workers have extremely high injury rates compared to other occupations.

The good news is that there are many practical and proven ways to avoid these injuries. A supplemental issue of New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy offers a new free report that describes over 30 health hazards to hospital workers and over 150 ways to avoid them.

In Controlling Health Hazards to Hospital Workers: A Reference Guide, specialists in occupational medicine from the United States and India describe ways to control everything from anesthetic gases to X-rays.

Hazards addressed include lifting and other ergonomic hazards, communicable diseases, hazardous drugs, chemicals, radiation, violence, stress and shift work. The researchers have summarized the literature on controlling these hazards by engineering means such as ventilation, shielding, automation, and administrative changes in procedures.

Each section describes the hazard, the literature on controls and internet resources where the reader can find more information. There are also general tips about identifying hazards and setting priorities.

The Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the New York State Nurses Association have made this supplemental issue of New Solutions (Baywood Publishing) available for free in order to reach healthcare professionals and hospital workers around the world. “It will be great for hospitals to have all this information in one resource guide,” said Professor Somashekhar Nimbalkar, one of the authors. “We will be sure to send it around to every hospital in India.”

The report, Controlling Health Hazards to Hospital Workers: A Reference Guide, New Solutions, Vol. 23, Supplement, 2013 can be freely downloaded at: http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?id=j676v4ul5026

The report will also be posted on the web site of the New York State Nurses Association at www.nysna.org/HealthHazards.pdf
 ….

Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). 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.

Found on

Related articles

• OSHA Releases New Resources to Help Employers Protect Workers from Hazardous Chemicals (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Violence Occupational Hazards in Hospitals (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• How Safe Is Healthcare for Workers? (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Workers Compensation For Firefighters Discussed (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Silica exposures in fracking : Over 60 percent of workers may be excessively exposed (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• OSHA releases new resources to better protect workers from hazardous chemicals (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• California Chemical Plant Leaking Sulfuric Acid Sickens 70 (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

“Scientists Who Help Asbestos Industry Sell Asbestos” by Kathleen Ruff

Today's post was shared by Ban Asbestos Network and comes from www.gban.net

Kathleen Ruff Scientists who help asbestos industry sell asbestosThe asbestos industry has money. But money cannot buy scientific credibility Kathleen Ruff, RightOnCanada.ca, November 21, 2013 The asbestos industry will be holding a conference in New Delhi, India on December 3 & 4 to promote use of asbestos in India. The International Chrysotile Association (ICA), an organisation financed by the asbestos industry and which promotes the industry’s interests, is organizing the conference. The ICA has now put on its website a list of its speakers and summaries of their pro-asbestos presentations. The purpose of the conference and of the ICA is to promote continued use of chrysotile asbestos, particularly in India, the biggest importer of asbestos in the world. Scientists and health experts around the world have condemned the asbestos industry and its allies for disseminating deadly, deceptive misinformation that will cause disease and loss of life. Many of the speakers have been paid by the asbestos industry for years to take part in activities and events to promote use of chrysotile asbestos, particularly in developing countries. They form a small, notorious group of asbestos industry allies. David Bernstein, for example, has received millions of dollars from asbestos lobby organisations for research on rats which, according to Bernstein, shows that rats positively enjoy being exposed to chrysotile asbestos. A New York court recently concluded...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

….

Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). 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.

Found on

Related articles

• Facing lawsuits over deadly asbestos, paper giant launched secretive research program (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Scientific improprieties in the asbestos industry funded research of McGill professor (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Think asbestos is banned in the US? (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Take Action: Tell Congress to Protect Veterans & Cancer Victims (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Georgia-Pacific Reports Show Corporations Can't Be Trusted (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• H.R. 982 is anti-victim, anti-veteran and anti-privacy (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• South Lanarkshire Council asbestos ruling 'ends uncertainty' (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Retailer sandblasting bans have changed little in the garment industry

Today's post was shared by FairWarning and comes from www.mercurynews.com

Three years ago, when Levi Strauss announced it had banned the use of sandblasting, labor advocates hoped the move by the top-selling jeans maker would help end the deadly practice, which gives denim a fashionable look but is linked to a fatal lung disease. But even as Target and Gap joined Levi Strauss in proclaiming bans, sandblasting persists in factories that make those retailers' clothes in China, India, Pakistan, Egypt and Bangladesh, countries responsible for the bulk of the five billion pairs of jeans made each year, research by nonprofits, medical groups and labor organizations shows. "There clearly is sandblasting going on. I don't know how anyone could really deny it," said Katie Quan, associate chair of the Labor Center at UC Berkeley. Counterfeit jean production, outsourcing in the supply chain and vast factories that make jeans for dozens of brands under one roof make it difficult to track jeans from production to the shopping mall. But the groups say their research establishes that workers in many of these overseas factories are sandblasting -- spraying sand on denim to make it appear bleached or distressed -- without the necessary protective gear. Levi Strauss says its suppliers have removed sandblasting equipment from their factories and that it regularly conducts on-site inspections at factories. "No Levi Strauss & Co. products utilize sandblasting in product development, design, finishing or in any other aspect of garment...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Found on

Related articles

• Deadly factory fire again underlines importance of Bangladesh Accord (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Doing Business in Bangladesh (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Fashion Safety: The Tragedy Continues (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Labor Group Says Haiti's Factories Are Unsafe (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Foxconn admits labour violation at China factory (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• The Robotic Workforce (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Foxconn admits labour violation at China factory

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.bbc.co.uk

Foxconn, the world's biggest contract electronics maker, has admitted student interns worked shifts at a factory in China that were in violation of its company policies. Foxconn The firm, which makes products for some the world's biggest brands, has been under scrutiny for labour practices. It had admitted to hiring underage interns at the same unit last year. Foxconn said actions had been taken to bring the factory "into full compliance with our code and policies". "There have been a few instances where our policies pertaining to overtime and night shift work were not enforced," the company said in a statement. The manufacturing giant is owned by Taiwanese group Hon Hai Precision and employs about 800,000 workers around the globe. Foxconn, while not a household name in itself for many consumers, is used by most of the big technology giants around the world, including Apple, Sony, Microsoft, HP, and Nokia. It first came under scrutiny for its labour practices when 13 employees committed suicide at its Chinese plants in 2010. The incidents raised concerns over working conditions at its units in China and drew attention to growing labour strikes. For its part, Foxconn responded by raising wages, shortening working hours and employing counsellors on site. It also installed suicide nets to factory living-quarters at its Shenzhen factory. Also in 2010, Foxconn temporarily shut down a unit in India after 250 workers fell sick. And in May 2011, two people were killed after...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Found on

Related articles

• Deadly factory fire again underlines importance of Bangladesh Accord (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Fast and Flawed Inspections of Factories Abroad (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Doing Business in Bangladesh (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Fashion Safety: The Tragedy Continues (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Bangladesh Deploys Paramilitary in Garment Zone After Protests (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• U.S. Textile Plants Return, With Floors Largely Empty of People (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

U.S. Textile Plants Return, With Floors Largely Empty of People

Today's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

The old textile mills here are mostly gone now. Gaffney Manufacturing, National Textiles, Cherokee — clangorous, dusty, productive engines of the Carolinas fabric trade — fell one by one to the forces of globalization. Just as the Carolinas benefited when manufacturing migrated first from the Cottonopolises of England to the mill towns of New England and then to here, where labor was even cheaper, they suffered in the 1990s when the textile industry mostly left the United States. It headed to China, India, Mexico — wherever people would spool, spin and sew for a few dollars or less a day. Which is why what is happening at the old Wellstone spinning plant is so remarkable. Drive out to the interstate, with the big peach-shaped water tower just down the highway, and you’ll find the mill up and running again. Parkdale Mills, the country’s largest buyer of raw cotton, reopened it in 2010. Bayard Winthrop, the founder of the sweatshirt and clothing company American Giant, was at the mill one morning earlier this year to meet with his Parkdale sales representative. Just last year, Mr. Winthrop was buying fabric from a factory in India. Now, he says, it is cheaper to shop in the United States. Mr. Winthrop uses Parkdale yarn from one of its 25 American factories, and has that yarn spun into fabric about four miles from Parkdale’s Gaffney plant, at Carolina Cotton Works. Mr. Winthrop says American manufacturing has several...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Related articles

• Will Labor's Marriage With Industry Result in A Major Workers' Compensation Opt-Out Movement? (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Radiation Near Japanese Plant's Tanks Suggests New Leaks (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Workplace Deaths Substantially Unreported (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Italian Plant's Abrupt Shutdown Stirs a Debate (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topics (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Frigidaire Recalls Professional Blenders Due to Laceration Hazard (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Train Industry Allies in U.S. Senate Move to Delay Deadline for Crash-Prevention Technology (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Found on