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(c) 2010-2026 Jon L Gelman, All Rights Reserved.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Thank You Truck Drivers!

Today's post is shared from cdc.gov and was authored by W. Karl Sieber, Ph.D.:


When you eat lettuce from California or purchase a new couch, consider how these goods got to your local grocery store or home. Nearly 2 million heavy or tractor-trailer truck drivers cross the nation every year to bring us the goods we are used to finding on our store shelves or to deliver our online purchases [BLS 2012External Web Site Icon]. In honor ofTruck Driver Appreciation WeekExternal Web Site Icon(September 14-20), we want to thank all truck drivers for their hard work and dedication.
Truck drivers are essential to the United States. It is important that safety and health professionals and truck drivers and their employers work together to keep truck drivers safe and well. A recent NIOSH survey found that when compared to the U.S. adult working population, more long-haul truck drivers (heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers whose freight delivery routes require them to sleep away from home) were obese, cigarette smokers, and diabetic. For example, obesity and current smoking were twice as prevalent.
These results suggest that the job itself, which can include long hours sitting, stress factors like traffic and demanding schedules, and limited access to healthy foods, may contribute to a higher chance for health problems. This gives our partners and us an opportunity to use the work setting to identify and stimulate changes that can lead to better health. To do so, it is essential that we communicate effectively with truckers and trucking companies.
NIOSH is exploring different ways to share health information with the trucking industry. We are seeking your input to help us determine:
  • What is the best way to get our information out to long-haul truck drivers?
  • Who would long-haul truck drivers listen to?
  • What health and safety topics are important to long-haul truck drivers?
W. Karl Sieber, Ph.D.
Karl Sieber is a NIOSH Research Health Scientist with the Surveillance Branch of the Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies. He is the Project Officer for the National Survey of U.S. Long-Haul Truck Driver Health and Injury. The survey was supported by NIOSH with partial funding from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation.

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Sweeping Lawsuit Targets Soccer Concussions

Today's post is shared from nytimes.com
Soccer joined the growing legal debate over head injuries Wednesday after FIFA and some of the sport's governing bodies in the United States were made the target of a lawsuit seeking new safety rules.
A group of soccer parents and players filed the lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco. Lawyers representing the parents and players are asking a judge to grant the lawsuit class-action status on behalf of thousands of current and former soccer players who competed for teams governed by FIFA and several U.S.-based soccer organizations.
The NFL, NHL and NCAA have all faced similar lawsuits.
In a proposed legal settlement in another case, the NCAA last month said it will toughen return-to-play rules for players who receive head blows. It also agreed to create a $70 million fund to pay for thousands of current and former athletes to undergo testing to determine whether they suffered brain trauma.
Seattle-based lawyer Steve Berman helped negotiate the NCAA settlement and also represents the soccer parents and players who filed the lawsuit Wednesday. The soccer lawsuit doesn't demand monetary damages, but it is demanding that the soccer governing bodies alter safety rules including limiting headers for players 17 years old and younger.
"We believe it is imperative we force these organizations to put a stop to hazardous practices that put players at unnecessary risk," Berman said.
The lawsuit also wants FIFA to allow for temporary medical substitutions...
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Flaw In Federal Software Lets Employers Offer Plans Without Hospital Benefits, Consultants Say

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

A flaw in the federal calculator for certifying that insurance meets the health law’s toughest standard is leading dozens of large employers to offer plans that lack basic benefits such as hospitalization coverage, according to brokers and consultants.
The calculator appears to allow companies enrolling workers for 2015 to offer inexpensive, substandard medical insurance while avoiding the Affordable Care Act’s penalties, consumer advocates say.
Insurance pros are also surprised such plans are permitted.
Employer insurance without hospital coverage “flies in the face of Obamacare,” said Liz Smith, president of employee benefits for Assurance, an Illinois-based insurance brokerage.
At the same time, a kind of catch-22 bars workers at these companies from subsidies to buy more comprehensive coverage on their own through online marketplaces. No federal tax credits for health coverage are available to people with workplace plans approved by the calculator.
The calculator is used by self-insured employers, which include most large firms.
Like insurance companies, self-insured employers must certify that their plans pass health-law standards for consumer value.
One official way to do that is to get a passing score on the Department of Health and Human Services’ “minimum-value” calculator, an online tool.
An employer checks boxes on the screen indicating what...
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….
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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With asbestos found in second Mount Manresa building, DEP to investigate engineer who said structures were free of the material

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.silive.com

manresa.jpg
Mount Manresa’s Bruno Hall administration building sits partially demolished, as seen from Narrows Road North. (Advance file photo)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - With asbestos problems spreading at the Mount Manresa site, the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Thursday said it will investigate the Staten Island engineer who only months ago signed off on paperwork saying that six historic buildings slated for demolition at the site were free of asbestos.
It's not the first time that the engineer, Gaspare Santoro, has run afoul of a regulatory agency. He was placed on two years' probation in a 2004 disciplinary action, according to records.
The Buildings Department on Thursday said that DEP inspectors had found asbestos in two of the buildings at Mount Manresa so far. The presence of airborne asbestos in the first of those buildings was reported over the weekend.
A stop-work order has been issued for the whole site, and DEP inspectors are now testing all the structures for asbestos. DEP has said that that the air was safe.
It is not clear which buildings were found to contain asbestos, or when results from the asbestos tests would be complete.
The DEP said Santoro filed paperwork in April saying that each of six buildings on the Manresa site, which are slated for demolition to make way for a townhouse development by Savo Brothers, were "free of asbestos containing material."
The DEP told the Advance that it's possible that Santoro, hired by the...
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….
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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Sunday, September 14, 2014

What Happens When Preventable Medical Errors Go Unreported?

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.takejusticeback.com

How many preventable medical errors occur in your local hospital?


Research shows 440,000 patients die each year from preventable medical errors. But finding out how safe your local hospital is can be a difficult task. Write to Congress TODAY to fix this problem.
Recently, an arm of the federal government called the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it was going to stop tracking and publicly reporting eight egregious medicals errors that included when foreign objects are left in patient’s bodies after surgery and when a patient receives the wrong blood type in a hospital!
The good news is that after the USA Today exposed this policy decision and after many patient safety groups weighed-in, the federal government reversed its decision and will now resume reporting these errors.
But here’s the deal – there is still a significant lack of transparency when it comes to hospital safety. Currently, there is no simple way for patients to find out the safety record of a hospital. If you agree that we should know how safe our hospitals are, send a message to Congress TODAY!
Tell your representatives about the preventable medical error epidemic plaguing this country and urge them to prioritize patient safety and transparency! 
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Uber sued for allegedly refusing rides to the blind and putting a dog in the trunk

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.washingtonpost.com



The Uber app is shown in this Feb. 14, 2013, file photo in Washington, D.C. (AFP)
An advocacy group for the blind is suing the app-based ride-sharing service Uber, alleging the company discriminates against passengers with service dogs.
The federal civil rights suit filed Tuesday by the California chapter of the National Federation of the Blind cites instances in California and elsewhere when blind Uber customers summoned a car only to be refused a ride once the driver saw them with a service dog. In some cases, drivers allegedly abandoned blind travelers in extreme weather and charged cancellation fees after denying them rides, the complaint said.
The complaint filed in a Northern California District Court cites one instance where a California UberX driver put a service dog in the trunk and refused to pull over when the blind passenger realized where the animal was.
On another occasion a passenger was trying to explain that his dog was not a pet but a service animal when the driver allegedly cursed at him and accelerated abruptly, nearly injuring the dog and striking the passenger’s friend, who is also blind, with an open car door.
The group said it’s aware of more than 30 times blind customers were denied rides in violation of the American with Disabilities Act and California state law.
As a result, blind passengers are confronting unexpected delays and “face the degrading experience of being denied a basic service that is available to all other...
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With asbestos found in second Mount Manresa building, DEP to investigate engineer who said structures were free of the material

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.silive.com

manresa.jpg

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - With asbestos problems spreading at the Mount Manresa site, the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Thursday said it will investigate the Staten Island engineer who only months ago signed off on paperwork saying that six historic buildings slated for demolition at the site were free of asbestos.
It's not the first time that the engineer, Gaspare Santoro, has run afoul of a regulatory agency. He was placed on two years' probation in a 2004 disciplinary action, according to records.
The Buildings Department on Thursday said that DEP inspectors had found asbestos in two of the buildings at Mount Manresa so far. The presence of airborne asbestos in the first of those buildings was reported over the weekend.
A stop-work order has been issued for the whole site, and DEP inspectors are now testing all the structures for asbestos. DEP has said that that the air was safe.
It is not clear which buildings were found to contain asbestos, or when results from the asbestos tests would be complete.
The DEP said Santoro filed paperwork in April saying that each of six buildings on the Manresa site, which are slated for demolition to make way for a townhouse development by Savo Brothers, were "free of asbestos containing material."
The DEP told the Advance that it's possible that Santoro, hired by the...
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NFL estimates nearly three in 10 former players will have cognitive problems

Today's post is shared from .nbcsports.com
When it comes to concussions, the NFL has come a long way from the days of lies and half-truths regarding concussions.  (Maybe the NFL eventually will make that same progress when it comes to botched investigations of player misconduct.)
After years of downplaying and denying the long-term risks of concussion, the NFL is fully awake.  The process began five years ago next month, but it’s taken some time for the league to embrace completely the idea that it’s not good for the brain when the skull repeatedly hits other things hard.  Via the Associated Press, the league has acknowledged in connection with the settlement of the concussion litigation that nearly three in 10 former players eventually will suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or moderate dementia.
The disclosures made by the NFL came as part of the formal settlement approval process.  The NFL acknowledged that the rates of Alzheimer’s disease and moderate cognitive impairment are “materially higher than those expected in the general population” and would arise at “notably younger ages.”
The league also pointed out that the estimates are “reasonable and conservative,” with a deliberate effort to “overstat[e]the number of players who will develop [illnesses],” so that the fund available for retired players with qualifying illnesses will have enough money to cover them all.  Even so, the numbers are attracting plenty...
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New Safety Rules Weighed for Magnets

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.nytimes.com
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Scott Walker targeted in fall union offensive

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

This post has been updated.
The nation’s largest public sector union is mounting an intense effort to eject Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker from office this fall, determined to oust the Republican who punctured the power of organized labor in the state.
“We have a score to settle with Scott Walker,” Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said in his first interview about the union's midterm strategy.
“He took collective bargaining away from us,” Saunders added, noting that the union was first started in the 1930s by state employees in Madison. “He stole our voices, in a state where we were born.”
A spokeswoman for Walker, who is in a tough reelection fight, did not respond to requests for comment.
Walker is in a tough reelection fight against Democratic challenger Mary Burke.
Alleigh Marre, a spokeswoman for the governor, said in a statement that “the big government union bosses are bitter about Governor Walker's reforms which have saved taxpayers $3 billion to date, and they're going to stop at nothing to undo the recall by bankrolling Mary Burke's campaign.”
“When the union bosses say they 'have a score to settle with Scott Walker,' they really mean Wisconsin taxpayers because that's who Governor Walker is protecting with his reforms,” Marre added.
Saunders said the...
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Roughly 30 percent of former NFL player may develop Alzheimer's, other brain conditions

Today's post is shared from the techtimes.com
The NFL is a big deal, making billions every year. But is it doing enough to take care of league players, former and current?
According to a report released by the National Football League Friday, three out of every 10 former NFL players are likely to develop brain conditions, like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, and at earlier ages compared to the general population.
Released as supporting evidence in a class-action suit against the league, the report calculated that the NFL's proposed settlement of $675 million will be sufficient to award damages to affected former players. Out of the 19,400 former league players, the NFL and opposition lawyers estimate that around 28 percent of them, about 6,000 individuals, will develop Alzheimer's disease or some other form of dementia as a consequence of their time playing for the NFL.
The American football league is being sued for allegedly hiding information that associated brain injuries to concussions. Presiding over the lawsuit is Senior U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody, who has first expressed concern that $675 million will not be enough to cover all of the damages. The report was released in response to her concerns.
Aside from $675 million for compensation, the NFL also proposed spending $10 million for research purposes, $75 million to undertake baseline assessments, and $5 million to raise awareness in the public.
With the fund estimated to annually earn 4.5 percent, both sides have deemed the...
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Saturday, September 13, 2014

FDA Asks Recalcitrant Compounder to Recall Products, Again

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from blogs.wsj.com

FDA officials have asked a compounding pharmacy with which they have repeatedly sparred to recall all of its sterile products over concerns that medicines that are currently circulating may be contaminated and present a risk of illness or injury, according to a letter sent yesterday to Downing Labs, which operates NuVision Pharmacy in Dallas, Texas.
The move comes after the FDA found a host of problems during an inspection earlier this summer and warned health care providers and consumers not to use the medicines made by the compounder. In fact, this was the third such warning in 15 months that the agency issued about NuVision and the safety of its compounded drugs.
“Given the high rate of contamination, there is a high probability that contaminated units from other purportedly sterile drug product lots produced at the Downing Labs facility are currently in distribution,” the FDA wrote in what the agency calls a ‘formal request.’ “Based on the inspectional findings, FDA has serious concerns about the conditions and practices at the facility for the production of sterile drugs, which result in a lack of sterility assurance.”
The letter goes on to cite various manufacturing problems, such as a lack of “sound scientific data” to support explanations for sterility failures and an inability to identify the cause of the...
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People near 'fracking' wells report health woes

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.usatoday.com

People living near natural-gas wells were more than twice as likely to report upper-respiratory and skin problems than those farther away, says a major study Wednesday on the potential health effects of fracking.
Nearly two of every five, or 39%, of those living less than a kilometer (or two-thirds of a mile) from a well reported upper respiratory symptoms, compared to 18% living more than 2 kilometers away, according to a Yale University-led random survey of 492 people in 180 households with ground-fed water wells in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The disparity was even greater for skin irritation. While 13% of those within a kilometer of a well said they had rashes and other skin symptoms, only 3% of those beyond 2 kilometers said the same.
"This is the largest study to look at the overall health of people living near the wells," says lead author and University of Washington environmental health professor Peter Rabinowitz, who did the research while at Yale. The study focused on Washington County, part of the Marcellus Shale where hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is widely used to extract natural gas.
"It suggests there may be more health problems in people living closer to natural gas wells," but it doesn't prove that the wells caused their symptoms, he says, adding more research is needed.
Fracking, combined with...
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Under New Federal Rules, Employers Will Have to Report All Amputations

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

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is moving ahead with a rule change that will require companies to notify the agency whenever an employee is hospitalized for an on-the-job injury or suffers an amputation or the loss of an eye at work. Right now, companies have to notify OSHA only when a work accident kills a worker or gets at least three employees hospitalized.
“The updated record-keeping and reporting requirements are not simply paperwork, but have an important—in fact lifesaving—purpose,” Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health David Michaels told reporters during a conference call announcing the issuance of the final rule. “They will enable employers and workers to prevent future injuries by identifying and eliminating the most serious workplace hazards: ones that have already caused injuries to occur.”
The new rules, a version of which was formally proposed three years ago, are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1. They have drawn criticism from industry groups that contend they will burden businesses without doing anything to help workers. The new reporting requirements, says Marc Freedman, who directs labor law policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, will “generate much traffic to OSHA that I don’t think they’re going to have any real use for.”
The Labor Department...
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America’s top execs seem ready to give up on U.S. workers

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



Correctional deputy Loralee Anne, right, speaks with job seekers about positions with the Riverside County Sheriff at the Career Choice Inland Empire Career Fair in Ontario, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014.  Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Three years ago, Harvard Business School asked thousands of its graduates, many of whom are leaders of America’s top companies, where their firms had decided to locate jobs in the previous year. The responses led the researchers to declare a “competitiveness problem” at home: HBS Alumni reported 56 separate instances where they moved 1,000 or more U.S. jobs to foreign countries, zero cases of moving that many jobs in one block to America from abroad, and just four cases of creating that many new jobs in the United States. Three in four respondents said American competitiveness was falling.
Harvard released a similar survey this week, which suggested executives aren’t as glum about American competitiveness as they once were; a majority of alums now say competitiveness is improving or treading water. Three years of economic growth and record corporate profits will do that for you.
Companies don’t appear any more keen on American workers today, though. The Harvard grads are down on American education and on workers’ skill sets, but they admit they’re just not really engaged in improving either area. Three-quarters said their firms would rather invest in new...
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Infections in the Workplace: The Eloba Effect- Is the US Doing Enough?

The Ebola epidemic has already infected the US health care workforce and medical professionals have been evacuated to US based medical centers for treatment. Treating workplace acquired infections is similar to dodging a speeding and ricocheting bullet.

Infection is the workplace can result in devastating epidemics. Today's post highlights this concern and is shared from the nytimes.

"Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warns that as the epidemic “continues to spiral out of control,” the risk will rise that a mutation might make it more transmissible. And while many experts think the risk of a mutation is small, Mr. Obama echoed these concerns when he said in a recent interview with “Meet the Press” that an easily transmissible virus could be “a serious danger to the United States.” In any case, health officials will need to be vigilant in monitoring how this virus evolves as the caseload expands."

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Thursday, September 11, 2014

NATIONAL CENSUS OF FATAL OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES IN 2013 (PRELIMINARY RESULTS)

A preliminary total of 4,405 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2013, lower than 
the revised count of 4,628 fatal work injuries in 2012, according to results from the Census of Fatal 
Occupational Injuries (CFOI) conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rate of fatal work 
injury for U.S. workers in 2013 was 3.2 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers, compared to a
final rate of 3.4 per 100,000 in 2012.

 Final 2013 data from CFOI will be released in the late spring of 2015. Over the last 5 years, net 
increases to the preliminary count have averaged 165 cases, ranging from a low of 84 in 2011 to a high 
of 245 in 2012. The revised 2011 figure was 2 percent higher than the preliminary total, while the 2012 
figure was 6 percent higher. 

 Key preliminary findings of the 2013 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries:

  Fatal work injuries in private industry in 2013 were 6 percent below the 2012 figure. The 
preliminary 2013 count of 3,929 fatal injuries in private industry represents the lowest annual 
total since the fatality census was first conducted in 1992. 

  Fatal work injuries among Hispanic or Latino workers were higher in 2013, rising 7 percent. The 
797 Hispanic or Latino worker deaths in 2013 constituted the highest total since 2008. Fatal work 
injuries were lower among all other major racial/ethnic groups. 

  Since 2011, CFOI has identified whether fatally-injured workers were working as contractors at 
the time of the fatal incident. In 2013, 734 decedents were identified as contractors, above the 715 
reported in 2012. Workers who were working as contractors at the time of their fatal injury
accounted for 17 percent of all cases in 2013.

  Fatal work injuries involving workers under 16 years of age were substantially lower, falling from 
19 in 2012 to 5 in 2013—the lowest total ever reported by the census. Fatal work injuries in most
other age groups were also lower in 2013, though fatal work injuries among workers 25 to 34
years of age were higher.

  Work-related suicides were 8 percent higher than in 2012, but workplace homicides were 16 
percent lower. Overall, violence accounted for 1 out of every 6 fatal work injuries in 2013.

  The number of fatal work injuries among firefighters was considerably higher in 2013, rising
from 18 in 2012 to 53 in 2013. The large increase resulted from a few major incidents in which 
multiple fatalities were recorded, including the Yarnell Hill wildfires in Arizona which claimed 
the lives of 19 firefighters. 

  Fatal work injuries among self-employed workers were lower by 16 percent from 1,057 in 2012 
to 892 in 2013. The preliminary 2013 total represents the lowest annual total since the series 
began in 1992. 

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September 11th: Remembering....

The 2014 annual Tribute of Light in New York City memorializes the lives lost in the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Consisting of 88 light bulbs, the light beans skyward in two streams of light that symbolize the two towers of the World Trade Center.
This photo was taken looking south east from just south of the George Washington Bridge.
Photo Credit: Jon Gelman


Pres Obama, Def Sec Hagel, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dempsey at Pentagon for 9/11 remembrance
Photo Credit: Pete Souza, Official Whitehorse Photographer


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Supplier for Samsung and Lenovo Accused of Using Child Labor

Today's post is shared from nytimes.com
China Labor Watch said it had found more than 10 children working at the factory of a China-based supplier for the technology giants Samsung Electronics and the Lenovo Group in an investigation in July and August.
The group, based in New York, also said its investigation had found more than 100 student workers who were not being paid overtime wages or a subsidy for working at night.
The supplier, HEG Technology, denied the accusations, and Samsung said it had found no children or students working on the Samsung production line at the factory, in Huizhou. A Lenovo spokeswoman said the company would look into the report.
In a statement, China Labor Watch said it shared evidence with Samsung last week and that Samsung had demanded that the supplier pay some students’ wages. But it did not say whether Samsung had acted on the matter of child labor or whether it had provided the information to Lenovo.
In response, Samsung said it had proposed to China Labor Watch that they conduct a joint investigation “for more precise verification” of the accusations. Samsung also said it had informed the watchdog about its own investigation, adding, “We find it regrettable that CLW issued the allegations today without any mention of our statement.”
HEG Technology said the company had never hired children, and that it had facial recognition systems to ensure workers were not under age.
This is the second time in two months that China Labor Watch has said it found...
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Editorial - Unscrupulous businesses hurt workers, honest competitors and economy

Today's  post is shared from starnewsonline.com/
Dishonest contractors are cheating taxpayers of millions of dollars and undercutting the livelihood of employees and law-abiding competitors. Regulators who are supposed to curb this type of abuse have done little to stop it.
By deliberately and illegally classifying construction employees as "independent contractors," these companies avoid paying unemployment, workers compensation and withholding taxes, among others. The extent of this abuse was documented in The Raleigh News & Observer and the Charlotte Observer as part of a larger series by McClatchy newspapers. The impact is mind-boggling.
Since 2009, the newspapers estimated that North Carolina contractors have cost state, federal and local taxpayers $467 million.
The problem extends beyond the taxman. Workers are cheated out of health insurance, workers compensation should they be injured on the job. The company doesn't pay into unemployment insurance designed to cover workers who are laid off through no fault of their own.
Many of these companies do not withhold payroll taxes, either, meaning that workers don't get credit for paying into Social Security. These "independent" workers often are paid in cash, many of them vastly underreport their income – thereby shortchanging Uncle Sam and the state kitty.
Moreover, companies that illegally cut corners often can underbid honest contractors who obey the law. Over the years there have...
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