Workers' Compensation

Friday, October 25, 2013

EPA Hits The Road To Seek Input On New Rules

Today's post was shared by Huffington Post and comes from www.huffingtonpost.com

The U.S. states that already have a plan in place to cut carbon pollution from power plants are likely to make the case to regulators this week that their program offers a viable model for others to follow.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday kicks off an 11-city "listening tour" as part of its effort to craft emissions rules for existing power plants. The tour starts in New York and Atlanta. Meetings will then be held from Boston to Seattle, wrapping up on Nov. 8.

The agency is expected to solicit ideas on how best to regulate carbon emissions from the more than 1,000 power plants now in operation - the cornerstone and arguably the most controversial part of the Obama administration's strategy to address climate change.

The EPA will use a rarely employed section of the federal Clean Air Act, known as section 111(d), and will rely heavily on input from states to craft a flexible rule that can be applied to states with different energy profiles.

President Barack Obama set a June 2014 deadline for the agency to propose its rules, which need to be finalized in June 2015.

Officials from some of the nine northeastern states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) - a carbon trading program targeting power sector emissions - will attend some of the sessions and make the case that the initiative has a "plug and play" option for states to meet future federal...

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That time Big Tobacco sold asbestos as the "Greatest Health Protection in Cigarette History"

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

It's hard to think of anything more reckless than adding a deadly carcinogen to a product that already causes cancer—and then bragging about the health benefits. Yet that's precisely what Lorillard Tobacco did 60 years ago when it introduced Kent cigarettes, whose patented 'Micronite" filter contained a particularly virulent form of asbestos.

Smokers puffed their way through 13 billion Kents between March 1952 and May 1956, when Lorillard changed the filter design. Six decades later, the legal fallout continues—just last month, a Florida jury awarded more than $3.5 million in damages to a former Kent smoker stricken with mesothelioma, an extremely rare and deadly asbestos-related cancer that typically shows up decades after the initial exposures.

Lorillard and Hollingsworth & Vose, the company that supplied the asbestos filter material, face numerous claims from mesothelioma sufferers, both factory workers who produced the cigarettes or filter material and former smokers who say they inhaled the microscopic fibers. (The companies insist that hardly any fibers escaped.) There's been a burst of new lawsuits in the last few years, according to SEC filings, possibly because a mesothelioma patient these days is almost certain to be asked by his doctor or lawyer, "Did you happen to smoke Kents in the 1950s?"

While there's no official count, records and interviews suggest that mesothelioma claims since the 1980s number in the low hundreds at least. ...

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mHealth: A Potential Player for Workers' Compensation

Delivery of workers' compensation medical care is one of the most costly items on the landscape of the social, remedial program. A recent article in the AMA Journal raises doubts that the delivery of medical care utilizing electronic mobile technology will be an advantageous solution to spiraling costs.

"mHealth technologies have the potential to change every aspect of the health care environment and to do so while delivering better outcomes and substantially lowering costs. For consumers, mHealth offers the promise of improved convenience, more active engagement in their care, and greater personalization. For clinicians, mHealth could lead to reduced demands on their time and permit them to instead refocus on the art of medicine. Much remains to be done to drive this transformation. Most critically needed is real-world clinical trial evidence to provide a roadmap for implementation that confirms its benefits to consumers, clinicians, and payers alike."

Click here to read the entire article appearing in the AMA Journal

Sued Over Pay, Condé Nast Ends Internship Program

The programs enforcing the misclassification of workers is beginning to take a new direction. Civil litigation for enforcement has promise. Victory means that workers will be paid more and adequate benefits calculation from wages, such workers' compensation benefits, will be more adequately representativ. Today's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

For Lauren Indvik, a business editor and soon-to-be co-editor in chief at Fashionista, the 2008 internship at Vogue was worth every sacrifice.

The 15 pounds frantically lost in the weeks before the interview. The predawn drive from New Hampshire to Times Square. The bed shared with a fellow penny-pinching friend near Pennsylvania Station, and the morning and evening walks — in heels — because she could not afford subway fare. “It’s so valuable,” she said.

FDA Proposes Changes in Pain Medication Prescriptions

The US FDA has announced proposed changes will be forthcoming in labeling for pain relief medication:

Consumers and health care professionals will soon find updated labeling for extended-release and long-acting opioid pain relievers to help ensure their safe and appropriate use.

"In addition to requiring new labeling on these prescription medications, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also requiring manufacturers to study certain known serious risks when these drugs are used long-term.

"The new labeling requirements and other actions are intended to help prescribers and patients make better decisions about who benefits from the use of these medications.

They also are meant to reduce problems associated with their use," says Douglas Throckmorton, M.D., deputy director of regulatory programs in FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "Altogether, the actions we're now announcing are part of FDA's efforts to make opioids as safe as possible for those who need them," Throckmorton adds.

"He noted that the actions come after careful analysis of new safety information, including reviews of medical literature, and consideration of input from patients, experts and many other interested parties.

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US Inspector General Wants More Disclosure By Back Surgeons Who Implant their Own Devices

Back surgery is a big business and the selling of implanted medical devices are costly transactions. The US Office of Inspector General has issued a report today that their should be more disclosure to patients when back surgeons implant their own devices.

"PODs have a substantial presence in the spinal device market. PODs
provided devices used in nearly a fifth of the spinal surgeries billed to
Medicare in FY 2011, and over a third of the hospitals in our sample
purchased spinal devices from PODs. Many of these hospitals began
purchasing from PODs after 2009. Also, few hospitals in our sample
required physicians to disclose their ownership in device companies,
such as PODs, to their patients.

"In FY 2012, hospitals that purchased from PODs performed more spinal
surgeries and had slightly more complex spinal surgery caseloads than
hospitals that did not purchase from PODs. After they began purchasing
from PODs, hospitals experienced increased rates of growth in the
number of spinal surgeries performed as compared to the growth rate for
hospitals overall. Determining the cause for the increased rate of spinal
procedures was beyond the scope of our review.

"In addition, our findings raise questions about PODs’ claims that their
devices cost less than other suppliers. Within the device categories we
examined, PODs’ devices either cost the same as or more than devices
from companies not owned by physicians. This, combined with the
volume of spinal surgeries we found at hospitals that purchase from
PODs, may increase the cost of spinal surgery to the Medicare program
and beneficiaries over time. Further, hospitals inconsistently required
physicians to disclose ownership interests in PODs to either the hospitals
or their patients. Thus the ability of hospitals and patients to identify
potential conflicts of interest among these providers is reduced.

"The Sunshine Act may improve the ability of hospitals and patients to
identify physicians’ investment in device companies. The Act will
require most PODs to report to CMS all physician ownership and
investment interests.18 CMS plans to list these companies and their
payments on a publicly available Web site.

Click here to read the complete report.

Why The Republicans Should Not Cut Food Stamps

Facts about food stamps. Click on this image to see it full size.

Today's post comes from guest author Paul J. McAndrew, Jr., from Paul McAndrew Law Firm.

I write about a debate now occurring in Congress in which the GOP is threatening millions of American families, including 200,000 Iowa households. The debate is over food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”).

To understand the problem, we need only review the survey-report issued by the Department of Agriculture on September 4. (Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Mark Nord, Anita Singh, “Household Food Security in the United States in 2012”). The report shows that nearly 49 million Americans lived in “food insecure” households last year. This means family members lack consistent access to adequate food throughout the year. In short, 49 million Americans (over 16 times the Iowa population) went hungry for long periods in 2012. Worse, children were found to be hungry in 10% of all U.S. families with children. The agency found that hunger rates since the 2007 recession are much higher than before.

Medical Device Litigation: Medtronic, Inc. v. Stengel

The US Supreme Court has invited The Solicitor General to comment on the the issue of Federal pre-emption of medical-device litigation. The petition for certiorari is still pending in this matter. Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.scotusblog.com

Issue: Whether the Medical Device Amendments to the federal Food,Drug, and Cosmetic Act preempt a state-law claim alleging that a medical device manufacturer violated a duty under federal law to report adverse-event information to the Food and Drug Administration.

Date	Proceedings and Orders
Mar 28 2013	Application (12A931) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from April 10, 2013 to June 9, 2013, submitted to Justice Kennedy.
Apr 1 2013	Application (12A931) granted by Justice Kennedy extending the time to file until May 10, 2013.
May 10 2013	Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 13, 2013)
May 30 2013	Order extending time to file response to petition to and including July 15, 2013.
Jun 10 2013	Brief amicus curiae of DRI -The Voice of the Defense Bar filed.
Jun 13 2013	Brief amici curiae of Washington Legal Foundation, et al filed.
Jun 13 2013	Brief amicus curiae of Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc. filed.
Jul 15 2013	Brief of respondents Richard Stengel, and Mary Lou Stengel in opposition filed.
Jul 30 2013	Reply of petitioner Medtronic, Inc. filed.
Jul 31 2013	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of September 30, 2013.
Oct 7 2013	The Solicitor General is invited to file a brief in this case expressing the views of the United States.

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Six Retailers Announce Recall of Buckyballs and Buckycubes High-Powered Magnet Sets Due to Ingestion Hazard

Today's post was shared by U.S. CPSC and comes from www.cpsc.gov

Buckycubes sets

Recall Details

Description

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with six retailers, is announcing the voluntary recall of all Buckyballs and Buckycubes high-powered magnet sets sold by these companies. CPSC continues to warn that these products contain defects in the design, warnings and instructions, which pose a substantial risk of injury and death to children and teenagers.

Imported by Maxfield & Oberton LLC, of New York, N.Y., Buckyballs and Buckycubes consist of sets of numerous, small, high-powered magnets. These sets vary in the number of magnets included and come in a variety of colors. Individual magnets in the set are about 5 millimeters in diameter. Individual magnets in Buckyballs are spherical and individual magnets in Buckycubes are cube-shaped.

About three million sets of Buckyballs and Buckycubes have been sold in U.S. retail stores nationwide and online since 2010 for between $5 and $100.

Consumers should take the high-powered magnet sets and all associated individual magnets away from children and teenagers and contact the retailer from which they purchased the product to obtain instructions for their remedy:

Barnes & Noble, toll-free at (855) 592-2993 or online at www.barnesandnoble.com and click on “Product Recalls”

Bed Bath & Beyond, toll-free at (800) 462-3966 or online at ...

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California: Medical Delay and Denial Protested

Sedgwick vs. The People

Round 4: Sedgwick v. Debbye Mazzucca

Operating Room Nurse’s Injury no Emergency to Kaiser, Insurer: Defy Judge’s Order, Refuse to Provide Urgent Medical Care Injured Workers’ Advocates to Seek Penalties, Investigation

Injured Kaiser OR nurse Debbye Mazzucca tells how Sedgwick defied a judge's order to provide care

The California Applicants’ Attorneys Association (CAAA), whose members represent Californians injured on the job, today held a news conference outside Kaiser Foundation Hospital with Debbye Mazzucca, a former operating room nurse who was injured while working there. They called for sanctions against Sedgwick Claims Services, Kaiser’s workers’ compensation insurer, for defying a judge’s order to provide Ms. Mazzucca urgently needed medical care, causing her to lose her teeth. On February 11, 2013, the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) ordered that Sedgwick “shall” provide dental treatment to Ms. Mazzucca. After eight months, Sedgwick and Kaiser have still refused to do so. Sedgwick faces a relatively small monetary penalty for ignoring the court order, which means little to a huge corporation.

Operating Room Nurse Debbye Mazzucca, of La Mesa, has thirty-five years’ experience, and worked for Kaiser for 12 years. She was injured in 1998, when she tripped and fell over a parking lot barrier while at work. Kaiser treated her injured knee, but ignored multiple doctors’ reports that she had also injured her neck and back. In spite of four doctors reports confirming that fact, Kaiser denied that those injuries were from the fall. Now, due to complications from medications, and delays in approving medical care, Ms. Mazzucca has lost her teeth.

CAAA President Jim Butler said, “Insurers’ Utilization Review (UR) routinely delays and denies doctors’ legitimate requests for appropriate medical treatment. This is unnecessary and expensive, and has got to change. We’ve seen the evidence of out-of-control delay and denial in the 15,000 denials of recommended medical care in just the month of August. It’s time to bring UR to heel, and stop insurance carriers from using it as a routine roadblock.”

“A doctor, agreed to by the company and their insurer, determined this Kaiser operating room nurse’s injury was a result of her work accidents. The insurer still refused to provide urgent medical care. A judge ordered the insurer to provide urgently needed medical care. But Sedgwick continues to refuse medical care and Debbye lost all her teeth during the months of delay,” said Alicia Hawthorne, the president of CAAA’s San Diego chapter, and Ms. Mazzucca’s attorney. “This nurse has been in pain, and in need of medical treatment. Yet, the insurance company defied a judge’s order to provide care. Kaiser and its insurer have spent years fighting their responsibility to treat these injuries. Why does the State of California allow workers’ compensation insurance companies to further damage patients through delaying and denying medical care and disability compensation?”

“Kaiser has failed to provide the care needed to heal my injuries,” Mazzucca told a news conference outside Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Diego. “For years, all they would approve were painkilling drugs. These drugs’ side effects have caused more medical problems, including ‘dry mouth syndrome,’ which is insidious and dangerous. The drugs prevent your saliva glands from working properly, causing your teeth and gums to deteriorate. Mine became infected, abscessed and threatened my health and my life. In 2010, my teeth started cracking and breaking off at the roots. I lost seven of my teeth this way.”

Sedgwick denied the dental treatment I needed, so Ms. Mazzucca took them to court. In February 2013, the judge ordered Sedgwick to provide this urgent medical treatment. To this day, they have refused to do so. “It has been more than a year and a half since the medical expert the insurer agreed upon said I urgently needed dental care. The pain and infection became so unbearable in July that my doctor sent me to the emergency room, and 25 of my teeth were removed. I then spent the entire month of July in the hospital, in agony, and on painkillers. Kaiser and their insurance company are defying a judge’s order to provide urgently needed medical care,” said Mazzucca.

Today’s release is the fourth in CAAA’s series of cases spotlighting the abuse of Utilization Review (UR) and other methods for delaying and denying legitimate medical care and disability compensation in the workers’ compensation claims handling practices of insurers like Sedgwick Claims Management Services.

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EPA Obtains Warrant to Address Over 1000 Drums and Containers at New Jersey Facility; Ongoing Investigation Reveals Presence of Hazardous Materials

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has obtained a federal warrant to do the necessary cleanup work at the Superior Barrel & Drum company facility in Elk Township, New Jersey, where more than a thousand unlabeled or improperly labeled drums and other containers have been left in a state of disrepair. Many of the drums are leaking their contents onto the ground and are exposed to wind and rain. The EPA and the NJDEP are currently investigating the drums and containers at the site under a warrant that was previously issued by a federal judge when the facility owner refused to give the EPA access to the facility. The EPA is working with Elk Township, the local fire and police departments and the NJDEP on the investigation and cleanup of the facility.

“This facility contains a large number of barrels that need to be addressed. The EPA intends to do everything necessary to ensure that hazardous materials at the facility do not harm the public,” said Judith A. Enck, EPA Regional Administrator. "The EPA’s top priority is preventing a release, fire or explosion that could endanger the community or pollute the environment.”

On August 29, 2013, the EPA was asked by the NJDEP to evaluate the facility and take appropriate actions to remove any threat posed by substances in the drums and other containers. The EPA is currently evaluating what substances are present in the drums and containers and assessing whether they could cause a chemical release or fire. The site is partially in a federally protected wetland.

“Conditions at this facility are inexcusable,” New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said. “The DEP will continue to work with the Environmental Protection Agency on the categorization and safe removal of these materials, as well as soil testing and monitoring to ensure the environment and public health are protected. We will also support any legal or enforcement actions deemed necessary to restore this site and protect the public.”

The EPA began its investigation on August 30, 2013. Field tests indicate that some drums contain hazardous materials, including corrosive and flammable chemicals. The preliminary results of samples sent to the laboratory show the presence of volatile organic compounds such as benzene and other hazardous substances such as lead. Exposure to these pollutants can have serious health effects. Benzene is known to cause cancer and lead is a toxic metal that is especially dangerous to children because their growing bodies can absorb more of it than adults. Lead in children can result in I.Q. deficiencies, reading and learning disabilities, reduced attention spans, hyperactivity and other behavioral problems.

The EPA is continuing to sample the contents of containers and drums at the site. The first set of final laboratory data is expected in the next few weeks. The EPA has secured the facility by installing fencing, warning signs and round the clock surveillance.
Once it completes its investigation, the EPA will work with state and local agencies to take appropriate steps to remove the hazardous waste and protect the public. The EPA is monitoring the air near the work areas. The EPA will secure the materials and make arrangements for their transport and proper disposal out of the area. Prior to removal of any of the hazardous materials, the EPA will develop a contingency plan to ensure that the removal of the chemicals is done safely. Fire department and hazardous materials response teams will be consulted and prepared to respond to the site if necessary. Throughout the cleanup, the municipal government and local community will be kept informed.

For photos and information about the EPA’s work at the Superior Barrel & Drum site, visit:http://epa.gov/region02/superfund/removal/superiorbarrel.

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CDC - NIOSH Science Blog – Conducting Responder Health Research and Biomonitoring During and Following Disasters

Today's post was shared by Safe Healthy Workers and comes from blogs.cdc.gov

When responding to a disaster, emergency workers may face unique health risks from exposures to hazardous chemical and environmental contaminants in forms and circumstances often not seen in other occupations. While the paramount needs to be addressed in a disaster are the protection of people in the disaster zone and the safety and health of the responders, disasters often provide the opportunity to conduct research on potential short- and long-term health effects among responders.

Knowledge gained from such research will improve the ability of safety and health professionals, administrators, and coordinators to safeguard responders as immediate rescue, recovery, and clean-up activities proceed. As well, it will improve our procedures for safeguarding responders in future emergencies. While this can provide a unique opportunity, the disaster environment presents many challenges for research while response is proceeding.

These limitations include the following:

response activities are the first priority,
researchers or research institutions may have limited access to incident leadership who can approve of research activities,
engaging emergency response personnel is difficult in research activities not immediately pertinent to the response,
marshaling necessary resources quickly will be difficult, and
timely...

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Klickitat County Lumber Company Fined

Today's post comes from guest author Kit Case, from Causey Law Firm.

By Kit Case from Causey Law Firm

William Arthur Cooper: Lumber Industry, 1934

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries announced that a Klickitat County lumber company was fined nearly a quarter of a million dollars after worker gets caught in machinery.

The SDS Lumber Company of Bingen, Wash., has been fined $244,600 for 69 workplace safety and health violations after a worker was seriously injured in March. The Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) cited the employer for one willful, 54 serious and 14 general violations of safety and health rules. A willful violation is cited when L&I alleges that the violation was committed with intentional disregard, plain indifference, or when employers substitute their own judgment for safety and health regulations.

L&I determined that a lack of training and proper safety procedures left the lumber mill worker with severe injuries when his arms became entangled in machinery while trying to clear a jam. L&I began an investigation on March 9m 2013 after being notified that the worker had been hospitalized. By law, all employers are required to report to L&I within eight hours anytime a worker is hospitalized or dies due to work-related causes.

“This incident shows the importance of Washington’s hospitalization reporting rule,” said Anne Soiza, assistant director for L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. “In most other states, a hospitalization involving only one worker does not have to be reported and the serious hazards could continue unabated. In our state, we are able to send inspectors right away to ensure the safety of the other workers.”

The investigation found that managers and supervisors were aware that workers routinely bypassed machinery safety guards to try and clear jams while the machinery was still in motion.

Consequently, the company was cited the maximum penalty allowed by law, $70,000, for a willful violation. Additionally, because the willful violation was associated with a worker’s serious injuries, the company will now be part of the Severe Violator Enforcement Program, an OSHA program that monitors severe safety violators.

The injury incident prompted comprehensive safety and health inspections of the entire plant. In addition to the machinery violations, the department found serious hazards related to chemicals, hazardous and flammable substances, bloodborne pathogens, confined work spaces, electrical and fall protection. Many of the violations were corrected during the inspections.

The company has appealed the citations.

Photo credit: americanartmuseum / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

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“Lamestream Media” Enables Right-Wing Talking Points About Social Security Disability

Today's post comes from guest author Jay Causey, from Causey Law Firm.

By Jay Causey from Causey Law Firm

- - Screen Shot from Fair.org

Just in time for a scheduled meeting of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs to discuss the status of the Social Security Disability program (SSDI) on October 7th, on Sunday, October 6, CBS’ popular “news” show, 60 Minutes, aired "Disability USA" - a sensationalized program full of misleading and largely anecdotal information designed to convince viewers the program is riddled with fraud and on the brink of collapse. If you watched this program, and it is your sole source of information about Social Security Disability, you know essentially nothing about the actual operation of the program. You heard not a single word from disability recipients, their advocates, or from officials who administer the program, none of whom were invited to participate in the 60 Minutes piece.

...the 60 Minutes segment focused on some fraud in the program in one impoverished area of the country in order to paint disability recipients generally as the undeserving poor, slackers and frauds.

First, listening to the program you might not have understood that the average monthly benefit of about $1100 is not tax-payer money but earned credits for money paid into the system by the disabled worker. Then, in terms of the “shocking” growth of the disability rolls you heard CBS’s Steve Kroft and Senator Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma natter on about, you didn’t hear that the statistical growth of the program is a direct function of the increase in population over the past 30 years, the aging of the baby-boomer population into their higher disability years, the entry of women into the work force in greater numbers, and similar demographic factors. Finally, you likely came away from the program thinking that qualifying for SSDI is a cakewalk, when the actual standards for disability result in denial of two-thirds of all applications, only 10% of those denials being reversed on appeal, and an overall figure of about 41% of applicants ultimately qualifying.

Completely ignored in this puff-piece for the right wing (Coburn is the lead Republican on the Senate Subcommittee for Investigations and has a long-standing, well-documented hostility to Social Security) is the shifting of responsibility for disability from workers’ compensation systems, where it properly belongs, to the Social Security Disability program because of the rollbacks in coverage and benefits in states’ workers’ comp programs across the country, all driven by right-wing and corporate interests. So, while SSDI faces potential exhaustion of its funds in the next few years (although this can be – and in the past has been – remedied by shifting funds from the Social Security old-age program), the liability insurance industry, which includes workers’ compensation carriers, is enjoying record profits over the last two years.

Similarly unmentioned was the impact of the worst economy in decades, shrinking the ability of disabled workers to find less physically challenging work.

As is typically the case with these types of “news” pieces, the 60 Minutes segment focused on some fraud in the program in one impoverished area of the country in order to paint disability recipients generally as the undeserving poor, slackers and frauds. CBS could have moderated the potential negative impact of its program by including interviews of SSA program officials or of spokespersons from some two dozen national disability advocacy organizations who asked to be heard on this show. It shamefully chose to ignore all such requests, and has diminished itself accordingly as a news organization.

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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Voters Will Decide on Minimum Wage Hike - Impacting Workers Compensation Benefits

Workers' Compensation Rates are computed from the State's Average Weekly Wage (SAWW). NJ voters will an opportunity to vote on this landmark change in NJ law. Today's post was shared from njtvonline.org

The state’s current minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. If you work a 40-hour week, that’s $290 a week, or $1160 a month, before taxes, in a region where the average monthly rent is $1,760. Take away food, transportation and other incidental costs and, well, you do the math. It’s why a broad coalition of labor, elected and other officials are pushing hard for Public Question 2,

which would change the state’s constitution to raise the minimum wage to $8.25, and tie future increases to the cost of living, something that newspaper vendor Tony White would welcome.

“It would be nice if was $8.25 for a lot of jobs out here because the minimum wage has been down for a long time. It’s time for the little people to make a little something, ya know? That’s all,” White, of Newark, said.

Tazia Treadwell knows about working for $7.25. She did it for a couple of years at a fast food restaurant just out of high school.

“After two, three months, I got a 10-cent raise, so I was at $7.35 an hour. After two years, no progress. I was was frustrated. I was just out of high school and I was at that stage where I wanted everything new, the latest of everything and I could barely do that,” Treadwell said.
Then came an...

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Copyright

Friday, October 25, 2013

EPA Hits The Road To Seek Input On New Rules

That time Big Tobacco sold asbestos as the "Greatest Health Protection in Cigarette History"

mHealth: A Potential Player for Workers' Compensation

Sued Over Pay, Condé Nast Ends Internship Program

Thursday, October 24, 2013

FDA Proposes Changes in Pain Medication Prescriptions

US Inspector General Wants More Disclosure By Back Surgeons Who Implant their Own Devices

Why The Republicans Should Not Cut Food Stamps

Medical Device Litigation: Medtronic, Inc. v. Stengel

Six Retailers Announce Recall of Buckyballs and Buckycubes High-Powered Magnet Sets Due to Ingestion Hazard

Recall Details

Description

California: Medical Delay and Denial Protested

EPA Obtains Warrant to Address Over 1000 Drums and Containers at New Jersey Facility; Ongoing Investigation Reveals Presence of Hazardous Materials

CDC - NIOSH Science Blog – Conducting Responder Health Research and Biomonitoring During and Following Disasters

Klickitat County Lumber Company Fined

“Lamestream Media” Enables Right-Wing Talking Points About Social Security Disability

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Voters Will Decide on Minimum Wage Hike - Impacting Workers Compensation Benefits

Copyright

Friday, October 25, 2013

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Description

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