Workers' Compensation

Friday, December 13, 2013

EPA Provides Updated Guidance to Schools on PCB-containing Lighting Fixtures

Today's post was shared by US EPA News and comes from yosemite.epa.gov

Release Date: 12/12/2013
Contact Information: John Martin, (212) 637-3662, martin.johnj@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing important guidance to school administrators and maintenance personnel on how to properly maintain and manage fluorescent lighting with ballasts that contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Many older ballasts contain PCBs that can leak when the ballasts fail, leading to elevated levels of PCBs in the air of schools. While the elevated PCB levels should not represent an immediate threat, they could pose health concerns if they persist over time. Leaking ballasts must be removed and properly disposed of along with any part of the fixture that has been contaminated with PCBs. In schools across the country, most PCB-containing fluorescent light ballasts have exceeded their life span and are beginning to leak and smoke. The guidance is part of the EPA’s ongoing efforts to address potential PCB exposures in schools.

More than 150 incidents of leaking or smoking ballasts have been reported to the EPA from New York and New Jersey schools over the past 15 months. PCBs may cause cancer and have been shown to cause a number of serious non-cancer health effects in animals, including effects on the immune system, reproductive system, nervous system and endocrine system.

Lighting ballasts regulate the current to the lamps in fluorescent lights and provide sufficient voltage to start the lamps. Prior to 1979,...

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The New Push for Paid Family Leave

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from prospect.org

Today, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Rosa DeLauro introduced the FAMILY Act, a bill that would grant every employee in the country access to up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. It’s a move that’s been long in coming. Really long.

For the past 20 years, workers who have needed time off to care for a seriously ill family member or a new baby have had to rely on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). With its 12 weeks of job-protected leave, the FMLA has helped people hang on to their jobs while dealing with the exigencies of life in more than 100 million instances. But, about 40 percent of workers aren’t covered by the law. And, because its leave is unpaid, countless workers have qualified for time off but been unable to afford to take it.

The FAMILY act, which would provide workers with two-thirds of their salary up to a cap for as much as 12 weeks, solves those problems. Polls show high levels of bipartisan support for the idea. And recent evidence from California, which has the oldest of three state paid leave programs, shows having a family leave insurance fund can financially stabilize workers, save businesses the expense of providing their own benefits, and even increase fathers’ participation in the care of their children.

Still, if the history of pushing for paid maternity leave is any guide, today marks the first day of what will likely be a long and ugly battle. Advocates first started pushing for paid time off...

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Baseball Plans to Ban Collisions at Home Plate

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

Bruce Bochy spent his first career in baseball as a catcher, his second as a manager. He has absorbed the crush of oncoming base runners and felt the sickening despair of witnessing his own catchers’ injuries in collisions at the plate.

“The way these catchers are getting speared, they don’t have a chance,” Bochy said Wednesday. “I think it’s better to be proactive before we carry a guy off the field paralyzed and think, ‘Why didn’t we change this rule?’ ”

Now they have decided to do so. In the first step to formally eradicating a thrilling but dangerous staple of the game — and an emphatic response to the concussion crisis that has gripped other sports — Major League Baseball’s rules committee voted Wednesday to eliminate home-plate collisions.

Bochy, the manager of the San Francisco Giants, and St. Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny, whose catching career was cut short by concussions, made presentations to M.L.B.’s senior vice president, Joe Torre, and some other managers in the morning.

The committee eagerly adopted the guidelines in the afternoon.

“It was unanimous that it’s time,” Bochy said. “It was very encouraging. I personally thought either through the managers or general managers or the rules committee, there would be a few more naysayers. But there wasn’t one.”

Some former catchers, like Oakland Athletics...

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The Minimum Wage Ain’t What It Used to Be

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

David Neumark is professor of economics and director of the Center for Economics and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine.
Proponents of raising the minimum wage often point out that the real minimum wage is lower now than it was decades ago. But the federal policy aimed at low-wage work and low-income families has shifted — wisely — away from reliance on the minimum wage and toward a generous earned-income tax credit, which is better focused on poor families. There is nothing wrong with reducing our reliance on a less effective policy when we have adopted a more effective one. In fact, we should hope that research on public policy leads to exactly this kind of outcome.

The decline in the real value of the minimum wage is indisputable. As shown in the chart below, the real value of the federal minimum declined sharply over the 1980s, and then further in the mid-2000s, before partly recovering with the fairly steep increases in the minimum wage in 2007-9. But despite those increases and low inflation in recent years, it still remains well below its real value in the 1970s.
There has been a significant policy shift, however, in how to guarantee a minimally acceptable income to families with low-wage workers. In particular, the earned-income tax credit was instituted in 1976, and its generosity has since been expanded considerably.

Through the tax system, the earned-income tax credit pays benefits to families with low income and employed workers. For...

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Chain Saw Safety

Today's post was shared by Safe Healthy Workers and comes from www.osha.gov

OSHA Quick Card

Chain Saw Safety
Operating a chain saw is inherently hazardous. Potential injuries can be minimized by using proper personal protective equipment and safe operating procedures.

Before Starting a Chain Saw

Check controls, chain tension, and all bolts and handles to ensure that they are functioning properly and that they are adjusted according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Make sure that the chain is always sharp and the lubrication reservoir is full.
Start the saw on the ground or on another firm support. Drop starting is never allowed.
Start the saw at least 10 feet from the fueling area, with the chain's brake engaged.

Use approved containers for transporting fuel to the saw.
Dispense fuel at least 10 feet away from any sources of ignition when performing construction activities. No smoking during fueling.
Use a funnel or a flexible hose when pouring fuel into the saw.
Never attempt to fuel a running or HOT saw.

Clear away dirt, debris, small tree limbs and rocks from the saw's chain path. Look for nails, spikes or other metal in the tree before cutting.
Shut off the saw or engage its chain brake when carrying the saw on rough or uneven terrain.
Keep your hands on the saw's handles, and maintain secure footing while operating the saw.
Proper personal protective equipment must be worn when operating the saw, which includes hand, foot, leg, eye, face, hearing and head protection.
Do not wear loose-fitting clothing.
Be careful that the trunk or tree limbs will not bind...

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Simple Solutions for Home Building Workers

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

Home building is physically demanding work and manual material handling may be the most difficult part of the job. Manual material handling includes all of the tasks that require you to lift, lower, push, pull, hold or carry materials. These activities increase the risk of painful strains and sprains and more serious soft tissue injuries.

Soft tissues of the body include muscles, tendons, ligaments, discs, cartilage and nerves. Soft tissue injuries cause workers pain, suffering and lost income. They can also restrict non-work activity, like sports and hobbies. Builders’ and employers’ costs include loss of productivity and high workers’ compensation insurance premiums.
Simple Solutions for Home Building Workers provides basic information about readily available work practices and equipment that can help both new and experienced workers, contractors and builders prevent serious manual material handling injuries.
Simple Solutions for Home Building Workers [PDF - 2.6 MB]

To Print the Document as a Booklet

This publication was designed to be printed as a booklet on 8.5 x 11 inches paper. Proceed with printing the document as recommended below:

Bring up your print screen.
Go to the page handling feature. For example, your print screen may read “Page Sizing & Handling” or “Page Handling”.
Select booklet.
Adjust the printer settings so that each page aligns from the...

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Death of Apple factory workers highlight safety, underage issues

The recent deaths of a 15-year-old and three other workers at an iPhone plant in Shanghai highlight the challenges that Apple Inc. and its suppliers face to maintain worker safety and keep underage people out of factories.
In September, 15-year-old Shi Zhaokun began work at Pegatron's Shanghai assembly plant using an identification card that said he was 20. A month later, he died of pneumonia.
Labor groups said long working hours and crowded living conditions contributed to Shi's death.
Taiwan-based Pegatron on Wednesday confirmed that four workers died of illnesses recently at the Shanghai factory, which employs about 100,000 people.
Pegatron and Apple said their investigations indicated that the deaths weren't linked to work conditions.
In response to Shi's death, Apple last month sent independent medical experts from the U.S. and China to the Pegatron factory to conduct an investigation, Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said. "While they have found no evidence of any link to working conditions there, we realize that is of little comfort to the families who have lost their loved ones," she said.
Apple declined to comment about employment of underage workers, although the company has long said it is diligent about enforcing age rules at its suppliers.
It was unclear how Shi — who, his family said, was pronounced healthy at a Pegatron checkup in September — ended up dying of acute pneumonia a month later.

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International Conference on Monitoring and Surveillance of Asbestos-Related Diseases

Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from www.ttl.fi

We are pleased to invite you to the International Helsinki Asbestos 2014 Conference held 11–13 February 2014, at Hanasaari Cultural Center in Finland. The goal of this Conference is to highlight problem areas in the management of surveillance of asbestos-exposed individuals, as well as to discuss sources of new exposures to asbestos.
The Twitter hashtag for the event is #asbestos2014 (for latest tweets related to the event scroll to the bottom of this page)

The asbestos epidemic is far from over. Asbestos-related diseases (ARDs) are still globally among the most serious and widespread occupational health hazards. The number of annual deaths due to past asbestos exposure exceeds 100 000. Although the use of asbestos has been banned in several countries, some workers continue to be exposed in asbestos removal work. Even more importantly, asbestos is still widely used in many countries around the world. The European Parliament, UN-organizations such as WHO, and many professional non-governmental organizations have emphasized the importance of elimination of asbestos exposure and related hazards.
The Conference will deal with the most recent research results and the current views of leading experts on asbestos exposure monitoring, diagnostics and early detection of ARDs. It will provide an excellent opportunity to obtain an overview of the current state of this major occupational health hazard.
We would like to invite all occupational health and safety experts and...

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Friday, December 13, 2013

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