Workers' Compensation

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Scientific Study Linking Breast Cancer and Work Wins APHA Award

The scientific study linking the causal relationship of breast cancer to the occupational exposure of endocrine disruptors has been awarded the American Public Health Association Scientific Award. It is anticipated that this sentinel study will provide additional scientific evidence in the courtroom to support the compensability of breast cancer as an occupational illness. Today's post is shared from biomedcentral.com .

Every year the American Public Health Association honours the achievements of scientific researchers for efforts towards improving public health. This year the winners of the APHA Scientific Award, announced today in Boston, USA, are James Brophy and Andrew Watterson from the University of Stirling, UK, and colleagues, for two outstanding research articles on environmental factors contributing to breast cancer risk. Both articles were published last year; one in New Solutions and one in Environmental Health, the latter titled ‘Breast cancer risk in relation to occupations with exposure to carcinogens and endocrine disruptors: a Canadian case control study’.

“As researchers and public health advocates we are delighted with this recognition from what is the oldest and most noteworthy public health association in the world”, said Brophy. “This Award will encourage a closer examination of the breast cancer risks faced by countless women employed in a host of chemical-laden industries and will advance the development of precautionary strategies.”

In their study in Environmental Health, Brophy and colleagues analysed over 1000 cases of breast cancer and over 1000 controls in Southern Ontario, Canada, each with detailed occupational and reproductive histories. Their findings revealed that across all occupational sectors, from farming and plastics manufacturing to food canning and gambling/bars, women with potentially high exposures to endocrine disrupters and carcinogens for a period of ten years showed an increased risk for breast cancer.

Since the publication of their articles, further studies have continued to explore how breast cancer risk is impacted by a variety of factors, as Watterson recounts: “The research has been followed in the last year with scientific papers discussing breast cancer and shift/night work, and breast cancer and its links with cadmium exposures, endocrine disruptors and pesticide applications. Additional research on chemicals used in the plastics industry linked to breast cancer has revolved around endocrine disruptors and there is much going on with regard to risk assessments, for example, of BPA.”
Click here to read the entire article.

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Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Neuroscience may offer hope to millions robbed of silence by tinnitus

Occupational and traumatic hearing loss claims usually have a "tinnitus component" in measurable disability as a compensable portion of the award. Today's post is shared from pbs.org .

On Easter Sunday in 2008, the phantom noises in Robert De Mong’s head dropped in volume -- for about 15 minutes. For the first time in months, he experienced relief, enough at least to remember what silence was like. And then they returned, fierce as ever.

It was six months earlier that the 66-year-old electrical engineer first awoke to a dissonant clamor in his head. There was a howling sound, a fingernails-on-a-chalkboard sound, “brain zaps” that hurt like a headache and a high frequency "tinkle" noise, like musicians hitting triangles in an orchestra.
Many have since disappeared, but two especially stubborn noises remain. One he describes as monkeys banging on symbols. Another resembles frying eggs and the hissing of high voltage power lines. He hears those sounds every moment of every day.

De Mong was diagnosed in 2007 with tinnitus, a condition that causes a phantom ringing, buzzing or roaring in the ears, perceived as external noise.

When the sounds first appeared, they did so as if from a void, he said. No loud noise trauma had preceded the tinnitus, as it does for some sufferers -- it was suddenly just there. And the noises haunted him, robbed him of sleep and fueled a deep depression. He lost interest in his favorite hobby: tinkering with his ‘78 Trans Am and his two Corvettes. He stopped going into work.

Georgia-Pacific Reports Show Corporations Can't Be Trusted

Exposure to asbestos is known to cause cancers, such as mesothelioma and lung cancer. Despite the knowledge that asbestos companies had decades ago of asbestos fiber, they continue to delay payments to victims and deny responsibility for the legacy of disease caused by exposures. Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.takejusticeback.com

Earlier this week, the Center for Public Integrity published an exposé detailing the deceptive research program Georgia-Pacific funded to avoid accountability for

their asbestos-containing joint compound.
For twelve years Georgia- Pacific produced both a paste and dry mix joint compound that used asbestos, exposing countless numbers of workers to the cancer causing substance. In 1978, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned all asbestos- containing joint compound, a ban Georgia-Pacific supported at the time.
However, asbestos-related diseases take decades to develop and it wasn’t until 2005 that Georgia-Pacific realized they may be held accountable for exposing workers to asbestos, a known carcinogen. At this point they developed a business plan: pay 18 scientists a collective $6 million dollars to produce reports favorable to the company. In total, Georgia-Pacific funded 13 articles that were published in scientific journals.
According to the Center for Public Integrity, these reports used science that was questionable at best. For instance, an expert government panel endorsed an animal inhalation study set to last two years. However Georgia-Pacific paid scientists shortened the time frame from two years to five days, a period so brief the long lasting effects of asbestos could not properly be measured. Additionally, the research claimed to have been sponsored by a grant, but documents later proved Georgia-Pacific paid the equivalent of $850,000...

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Take Action: Tell Congress to Protect Veterans & Cancer Victims

Today's post is hared from takejusticback.org
This Thanksgiving, Big Asbestos really has something to be thankful for: the U.S. House of Representatives is voting on H.R. 982, a bill, which if enacted, would violate asbestos victims’ privacy and allow Big Asbestos to delay and deny justice until asbestos victims die.

Asbestos diseases is one of the longest-running public health epidemics in the world. Asbestos is still legal in the United States and kills more than 10,000 Americans every year. Veterans have been disproportionately impacted by asbestos and will be disproportionately harmed by H.R. 982. While veterans represent 8% of the nation's population, they comprise an astonishing 30% of all known mesothelioma deaths that have occurred in this country. Mesothelioma is horrific asbestos disease for which there is no cure.

Asbestos was known to be deadly by the 1930s. Yet, Big Asbestos corporate executives callously covered up this fact for decades, exposed millions of Americans to this deadly substance and put their health at risk.

Congress should focus on keeping Americans safe from deadly products, not protecting corporations that deliberately put workers and consumers in danger. Tell your representative to vote NO on H.R.982!

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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

NJ Garden State Plaza mall gunman investigation ongoing

Gun violence in the US continues to plague the nation with no end in sight. Today's post is shared from northjersey.com

Police said a “single male” entered Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus at 9:19 p.m. and fired several shots.

Some customers and mall employees were evacuated as police and SWAT teams descended on the area.

A gunman, dressed head-to-toe in black and wearing a black helmet, fired shots in New Jersey's Westfield Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus just before closing time Monday night, witnesses and authorities said.

None of the witness reported seeing anyone hit by the gunfire, and Jim Tedesco, the deputy coordinator of the Bergen County Office of Emergency Management, confirmed late Monday night that no injuries had been reported.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene that unfolded as the sound of gunshots rang out inside the mall just before it was due to close at 9:30 p.m. Authorities ordered shoppers and employees to huddle behind locked doors in the mall’s stores. Many were escorted to safety, but many more — perhaps thousands — remained inside the mall under lockdown orders after midnight, authorities said.

The incident drew hundreds of police officers from across...

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Three Known Causes of Death: Lead Paint, Asbestos, and PowerPoints!

Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from switchandshift.com

Three known causes of premature human death are exposure to lead paint, asbestos, and PowerPoint presentations. The frightening reality is only two of these have been forcefully removed from our everyday lives. Many organizations still use PowerPoint presentations to communicate strategies with the hope of building understanding, while developing ownership and commitment. Some leaders even have the outlandish hope of creating enthusiasm and excitement. This is a flawed expectation, given the reality that people will tolerate the conclusions of their leaders, but will only act on their own. If people don’t change their conclusions about the business and their role in it, they will not change their actions to bring the new ideas to life. Dressing up the conclusions of leaders in a colorful deck does little to mobilize people to change.

People will tolerate the conclusions of their leaders, but will only act on their own

The key is creating a way for people to think together about the strategic imperatives for the business and challenging their current assumptions and beliefs about what will make it successful in the future. The role and goal is not to communicate new strategic acronyms, but to translate the strategic business buzzwords into shared meaning through dialogue, inquiry, and synthesis. Here are three tips that can help in avoiding the death-by-PowerPoint approach to strategy execution through people.

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Stand Up For Safer Chemicals

Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from www.thepetitionsite.com

America's chemicals policy is badly broken. Hundreds of toxic chemicals in our sofas, laundry detergents and other household products have been linked to cancer, infertility, autism, and asthma. Thousands more chemicals have never been assessed or required to be tested for safety.
But we have the opportunity to protect ourselves. The bipartisan Chemical Safety Improvement Act offers a path toward critically needed reforms.
Take Action: Ask your Members of Congress to support improving and moving the Chemical Safety Improvement Act.
Dear Congress,
I am writing today to urge you to help improve and move the Chemical Safety Improvement Act.
Because of deficiencies in the 37-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act, the vast majority of the tens of thousands chemicals in use in the United States today have never been tested for their toxicity to humans or the environment. I am deeply concerned about potential impacts of chemicals on my health and the health of my family, but under the current system, adequate chemical safety information is not available to regulatory agencies or consumers. We need reform now.
The bipartisan Chemical Safety Improvement Act is a remarkable opportunity to fix our broken law. The bill would give the Environmental Protection Agency critical tools it needs to address the risks chemicals pose to health. For instance, the bill would require, for the first time, that the safety of all chemicals in active commerce be...

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Supreme Court 2013: Court Could Cripple Unions In Major Labor Cases

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.ibtimes.com

Over the next few months, the Supreme Court will hear two major cases that could prove a major setback to unions' ability to organize and collect dues -- and the conservative majority on the court is making pro-labor advocates nervous.
In UNITE HERE Local 355 v. Mulhall, the court will decide whether agreements between unions and employers that set the ground rules for union organizing violate the anti-corruption provision of the Labor Management Relations Act. That may sound pretty specific, but it could have far-reaching effects, leading labor expert and Harvard Law School professor Benjamin Sachs to write that this “could be the most significant labor law case in a generation.”
In this particular case, the union, Unite Here Local 355, struck an agreement with Mardi Gras, a Florida casino company, under which the casino would not interfere in the union’s organizing drive, and in return, the union promised not to strike during that organizing period. That kind of agreement is standard practice across the country.
The challenge to this routine agreement alleges that the casino’s concessions to the union, which included a promise to remain neutral during the organizing campaign, violates an anti-corruption statute that was intended to keep employers from bribing unions by specifically prohibiting companies from giving union officials “things of value.” Until very recently, no one considered that these organizing agreements would constitute...

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Calling America: Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello?

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

SINGAPORE — HAVING lived and worked abroad for many years, I’m sensitive to the changing ways that foreigners look at America. Over the years, I’ve seen an America that was respected, hated, feared and loved. But traveling around China and Singapore last week, I was confronted repeatedly with an attitude toward America that I’ve never heard before: “What’s up with you guys?”

Whether we were feared or loved, America was always the outsized standard by which all others were compared. What we built and what we dreamt were, to many, the definition of the future. Well, today, to many people, we look like the definition of a drunken driver — like a lifelong mentor who has gone on a binge and is no longer predictable. And, as for defining the future, the country that showed the world how to pull together to put a man on the moon and defeat Nazism and Communism, today broadcasts a politics dominated by three phrases: “You can’t do that,” “It’s off the table” and “The president didn’t know.” A Singaporean official who has been going to America for decades expressed shock to me at being in Washington during the government shutdown and how old and emotionally depressed the city felt.

“Few Americans are aware of how much America has lost in this recent episode of bringing the American economy to the edge of a cliff,” said Kishore Mahbubani, the dean of the Lee Kuan Yew...

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Johnson & Johnson to Pay More Than $2.2 Billion to Resolve Criminal and Civil Investigatio

Today's post is shared from justice.gov

Allegations Include Off-label Marketing and Kickbacks to Doctors and Pharmacists\Global health care giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its subsidiaries will pay more than $2.2 billion to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from allegations relating to the prescription drugs Risperdal, Invega and Natrecor, including promotion for uses not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and payment of kickbacks to physicians and to the nation’s largest long-term care pharmacy provider. The global resolution is one of the largest health care fraud settlements in U.S. history, including criminal fines and forfeiture totaling $485 million and civil settlements with the federal government and states totaling $1.72 billion.

“The conduct at issue in this case jeopardized the health and safety of patients and damaged the public trust,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “This multibillion-dollar resolution demonstrates the Justice Department’s firm commitment to preventing and combating all forms of health care fraud. And it proves our determination to hold accountable any corporation that breaks the law and enriches its bottom line at the expense of the American people.”

The resolution includes criminal fines and forfeiture for violations of the law and civil settlements based on the False Claims Act arising out of multiple investigations of the company and its subsidiaries.

Truck driver was looking at phone in deadly crash

Distracted driving continues to be a constant cause of accidents in the workplace. Workers' compensation laws and policies have not been modified to encourage the non-use of cellphones. Federal legislation on the other hand outlaws their use. Today's post is shared from azcentral.com

The semi-truck that crashed into several police and fire vehicles, killing an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer in early May, was “tossing cars around like they were toys,” according to one witness statement.

Officer Tim Huffman, 47, was killed on May 6 while investigating an earlier crash on Interstate 8, about 40 miles east of Yuma. An 18-wheeler driven by Jorge Espinoza, 33, had plowed into Huffman’s patrol car and several other vehicles at about 5 p.m.

Espinoza, who faces 20 felony charges including second-degree murder, was on his cell phone at the time of the collision, according to 600 pages of case files obtained by The Arizona Republic on Friday.

The documents and a video from an in-dash camera revealed that Espinoza was on Facebook looking at pictures of provocatively dressed women at the time of the wreck.

Espinoza, who pleaded not guilty in June, told police he was looking over his shoulder at a passing truck when suddenly he felt the violent jolt from the crash. Espinoza was not injured.

He told police he never saw the multiple DPS and fire department vehicles on the roadway, or an officer frantically waving his arms trying to get his attention before he jumped out of the way.

Click here to read the entire article here.

Roche to Pay Up to $548 Million for Antibiotic Against Superbug

Pharmaceutical costs are a major portion of the medical benefit delivery dollar. The economic costs for development and production are enormous for new pharmaceuticals. Government investment in costs of treatments as well as cures is essential. Today's post shared from businessweek.com reflects on the enormity of pharmaceutical costs.

Roche Holding AG (ROG) agreed to pay as much as 500 million Swiss francs ($548 million) for the rights to an experimental antibiotic to target a drug-resistant“superbug” that is a leading cause of fatal bacterial infections in hospitals.

Polyphor Ltd., the Allschwil, Switzerland-based developer of the antibiotic, will receive 35 million francs up front, and is eligible for further payments of as much as 465 million francs if the product meets development, regulatory and commercial goals, Roche said in an e-mailed statement today.Roche also will pay royalties on sales, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said.

The treatment, known as POL7080, targets Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, a bacterium that causes one in 10 hospital-acquired infections in the U.S., according to figures from the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited by Roche.Bacteria increasingly are growing resistant to antibiotics,leading to 25,000 deaths a year in the European Union alone,according to EU statistics.

“As the incidence of drug-resistant infections is creating an urgent demand for new therapeutic options, we look forward to adding this potentially important, targeted agent with a novel mechanism of action to our portfolio of innovative medicines,”said Janet Hammond, a Roche executive who oversees discovery of drugs for infectious diseases.

Polyphor, a closely held company, also is developing drugs for use in stem cell transplantation and lung diseases.

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The End of the Class-Action Carnival

Class actions have been a major vehicle to creating safer workplace in the past. It is imperative that the people have their day in court to maintain a democratically balanced system of government. Today's post article is shared from businessweek.com.

F. Paul Bland Jr. brings class-action lawsuits for a living. Over the years he’s represented groups of plaintiffs in suits against payday lender Check ’n Go and financial institution Wachovia.

He’s worried about business drying up. As a result of hostile Supreme Court rulings over the last several years, scores of mass consumer and employment suits that would have been viable a decade ago have been dismissed, says Bland, a senior attorney with Public Justice, a nonprofit in Washington.

“People bring me cases against cable companies or big employers, and I say, ‘Forget it. It’s impossible. Not even worth trying.’ ”

The mass lawsuit—in which hundreds or even thousands of plaintiffs join together to go after a corporate defendant—is in deep trouble. Growing judicial skepticism toward such suits and toward the lucrative settlements they generate has caused plaintiffs’ attorneys to shy away from accepting lengthy, complicated cases.

That’s tilting the legal playing field decisively in favor of Big Business—and as the Supreme Court reconvened on Oct. 7 for its 2013-14 term, trial lawyers are bracing for more setbacks.
Not everyone is shedding tears. Walter Olson, a legal expert at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, attributes the decline of mass lawsuits to a predictable—and...

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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Stable Jobs = Healthier Lives

Today's post was shared by RWJF PublicHealth and comes from www.rwjf.org

The NewPublicHealth National Prevention Strategy series is underway, including interviews with Cabinet Secretaries and their National Prevention Council designees, exploring the impact of jobs, transportation and more on health. “Stable Jobs = Healthier Lives” tells a visual story on the role of employment in the health of our communities.
Some highlights:

Since 1977, the life expectancy of male workers retiring at age 65 has risen 6 years in the top half of the income distribution, but only 1.3 years in the bottom half.
12.3 million Americans were unemployed as of October 2012.
Laid-off workers are 54% more likely to have fair or poor health, and 83% more likely to develop a stress-releated health condition.
There are nearly 3 million nonfatal workplace injuries each year.
The United States is one of the few developed nations without universal paid sick days.

Also check out our previous infographics exploring the connection between transportation and health, and education and health.
For more on employment and health, read a related issue brief.View the full infographic below.

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Why Texting-While-Driving Bans Don't Work

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

Lost in the clamor for stricter distracted-driving laws, a study from April 2013 found discouraging patterns in the relationship between texting bans and traffic fatalities.
As one might expect, single occupant vehicle crashes dip noticeably when a state legislature enacts a texting and driving ban. But the change is always short-lived, according to this study, which examined data from every state except Alaska from 2007 through 2010. Within months, the accident rate typically returned to pre-ban levels.
The researchers, Rahi Abouk and Scott Adams of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, attribute this pattern to the "announcement effect," when drivers adjust their behavior to compensate for a perceived law enforcement threat—only to return to old habits when enforcement appears ineffectual. In other words, drivers might dial back their texting when they hear about a ban, but after they succumb to the urge once or twice and get away with it, they determine it's okay and keep doing it.
"It's different than drunk driving," Adams said. Identifying intoxicated drivers is relatively easy, "you can give somebody a breathalyzer, you can have checkpoints." But with texting, "it's really hard [for policemen] to know" if someone's been texting.
No one denies the dangers of texting while driving. In fact, 95 percent of AAA survey (PDF) respondents said texting behind the wheel was a "very" serious threat to their personal safety. But 35 percent of the same...

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12 Attacks On Workers’ Rights That Will Make You Kinda Mad

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.buzzfeed.com

These are just a few examples of the numerous legislative attacks on workers—both union and nonunion—that took place in 2011–2012, as documented in a new report by the Economic Policy Institute. Many of these attacks were coordinated by a corporate-funded lobbying organization called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

More recently, working families have been fighting back. To find out how, check out “10 Ways Working Families Are ‘Kicking Ass’ for the Middle Class.”

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A Vital Measure: Your Surgeon’s Skill

Today's post is shared from the nytimes.com

To those of us in training, the hospital was cursed. At least when it came to a certain operation.
We dreaded being asked to scrub in at these operations because we knew we would be forced to hold patient parts until our fingers went numb and arms quivered. The surgeons hunted, stabbed and slashed their way through the procedure; and whenever their knife would go a little too far, or their knot would slip, or their stitch pull, we braced ourselves for their fury…and for the inevitable extra time it would take for them to correct their errors.
The patients, many of whom had come in to the hospital walking and talking, ended up lingering for weeks afterward with infections, open wounds and other complications.
But everything changed when a new surgeon came on board. Built like a rugby player, he shocked us first with his speed, and then his results. The once unbearable day-long slog became a morning’s work; and instead of spending weeks in the hospital, his patients went home after eight days.
In the operating room, his bear paw hands turned delicate, teasing out tissues, caressing vessels and nimbly knotting thread as fine as human hair. There was not a single wasted movement; and each step blended seamlessly with the next, giving those of us who had the fortune to observe the sense that we were watching not surgery, but a well-choreographed ballet.
“It’s like you’re just standing there holding the needle or...

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Copyright

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Scientific Study Linking Breast Cancer and Work Wins APHA Award

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Neuroscience may offer hope to millions robbed of silence by tinnitus

Georgia-Pacific Reports Show Corporations Can't Be Trusted

Take Action: Tell Congress to Protect Veterans & Cancer Victims

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

NJ Garden State Plaza mall gunman investigation ongoing

Three Known Causes of Death: Lead Paint, Asbestos, and PowerPoints!

Stand Up For Safer Chemicals

Supreme Court 2013: Court Could Cripple Unions In Major Labor Cases

Calling America: Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello?

Johnson & Johnson to Pay More Than $2.2 Billion to Resolve Criminal and Civil Investigatio

Monday, November 4, 2013

Truck driver was looking at phone in deadly crash

Roche to Pay Up to $548 Million for Antibiotic Against Superbug

The End of the Class-Action Carnival

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Stable Jobs = Healthier Lives

Why Texting-While-Driving Bans Don't Work

12 Attacks On Workers’ Rights That Will Make You Kinda Mad

A Vital Measure: Your Surgeon’s Skill