Garlock testimony switches to financial liability

Asbestos companies have for decades attempted to limit their personal injury claims liability by filing for bankruptcy protection. The Union Asbestos and Rubber Company and Johns Manville were the first in a series of companies who have sough protection. Adequately funding an asbestos personal injury claims trust is essential to protect injured workers and other victims of asbestos disease, ie. asbestosis, lung cancer & mesothelioma. As long as asbestos is not banned in the US, it is critical that these trust adequately compensate the victims and potential victims for decades into the future. 

Today's post was shared by Legal Newsline and comes from legalnewsline.com

Attorneys transitioned Friday from days of expert testimony on the carcinogenic effects of asbestos and the work practices of attorneys representing asbestos plaintiffs to arguments about how much financial liability Garlock Sealing Technologies should face in the company’s ongoing bankruptcy trial.

Garlock attorneys called on economists to give the court estimates for how much money the company should place in a trust for future mesothelioma victims who might sue the company over exposure to asbestos from their products. Doing so will allow the company to escape bankruptcy.

Health Care Workers Suffer Exposures to Antineoplastic Drugs

A recent study reveals that health care workers may be suffering from occupational exposure to chemotherapy drugs while treating cancer patients.

"Antineoplastic drugs are pharmaceuticals commonly used to treat cancer, which are generally referred to as 'chemotherapy'. Several studies have shown that exposure to antineoplastic drugs can cause toxic effects on reproduction as well as carcinogenic effects. Presence of these drugs in the urine of hospital personnel has been widely studied and dermal exposure has been suggested to be the main route of exposure. 

The main focus has been on handling the concentrated drug during preparation and administration of antineoplastic drugs and several approaches have been proposed on how to control those. Handling patient excreta has been considered to be potentially harmful to nurses working with cancer patients, since antineoplastic drugs are known to be present in patient excreta (e.g. urine, saliva, sweat, faeces, vomit), but this has not been studied in great detail in occupational exposure studies. 

The identification of occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs in sectors outside the hospital environment (i.e. veterinary medicine, home care, nursing homes and industrial laundries) showed that the number of workers potentially exposed to antineoplastic drugs is larger than previously estimated. "

Click here to read the series of articles in The Annals of Occupational Hygiene

Exposure to Antineoplastic Drugs in Two UK Hospital Pharmacy Units 
H. J. Mason, S. Blair, C. Sams, K. Jones, S. J. Garfitt, M. J. Cuschieri, and P. J. Baxter 

A Pooled Analysis to Study Trends in Exposure to Antineoplastic Drugs among Nurses 
Wouter Fransman, Susan Peelen, Simone Hilhorst, Nel Roeleveld, Dick Heederik, and Hans Kromhout 

Occupational Dermal Exposure to Cyclophosphamide in Dutch Hospitals: A Pilot Study 
Wouter Fransman, Roel Vermeulen, And Hans Kromhout 

Postulating a dermal pathway for exposure to anti-neoplastic drugs among hospital workers 
Hans Kromhout, Fred Hoek, Ruud Uitterhoeve, Roel Huijbers, Roderik F. Overmars, Rob Anzion, and Roel Vermeulen 

Occupational Exposure Limits for Therapeutic Substances 
Raymond Agius 

Read more about "occupational exposures" and workers' compensation:

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Jun 03, 2013

Chemical exposure in the workplace can have an insidious--yet devasating--effect on a worker. In a wide-ranging article, the New York Times presented an in-depth view of chemical exposure at furniture factories in North ...

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Cyclospora Outbreak Solved: Mexcian/California Salad Sold in Darden Restaurant Chain

The cause of the widespread (4000 more cases) infectious disease outbreak causing Cyclospora has been traced to a restaurant chain selling salad distributed by a Mexican and Salinas, CA based company.

"The salad mix identified in Cyclospora outbreak investigations in Iowa and Nebraska came from a Mexican company that processes foodservice salad, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today in an outbreak update.

The FDA said its trace-back investigation found that the salad mix that Iowa and Nebraska officials linked to the outbreak was supplied to restaurants in those states by a common supplier, Taylor Farms de Mexico, S de RL de CV. It added that its investigation has not implicated consumer packages sold in grocery stores.

The restaurants linked to the clusters include Olive Garden and Red Lobster outlets, both of which chains are owned by Darden Restaurants, FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman told CIDRAP News.

Click here to read to complete article: FDA: Salad cited in Cyclospora cases came from Mexican supplier

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Largest Study to Date Finds State Smoke-Free Laws Would Not Hurt Restaurant and Bar Business

Smoking is a major cause of disease and workers' compensation claims. Tobacco usage in restaurants and bars is a danger to both the employees and the guests. Banned in some jurisdictions, this study confirms that prohibiting smoking in restaurants and bars is not an economic detriment to businesses. Today's post was shared by RWJF PublicHealth and comes from www.cdcfoundation.org

A study conducted by RTI International in nine states concludes that statewide smoke-free laws would not be expected to have an adverse economic impact on restaurants and bars in these states. The study, which was supported by the CDC Foundation, was released today in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

The findings of the new analysis are consistent with the results of previous peer-reviewed studies. However, this study (www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2013/12_0327.htm) is unique in that it is the largest of its kind, aggregating all the available data from local jurisdictions in the studied states.

Occupations with the largest job growth

Today's jobs report shows once again that there is no growth in the manufacturing sector. The trend in job creation over the next decade is aimed totally at the aging population: Registered Nurses, Home Health Aides and Personal Care Aides. The traditional injuries over the past century brought before workers' compensation program will be changing from manufacturing to health care services. The high union wages/rates will be changed and adapted to lower paying positions with lower wages/rates of compensation being paid. Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.bls.gov

This table also can be found in the article, "Occupational Employment Projections to 2020," published in the January 2012 MonthlyLabor Review.

Other available formats: [XLS]Table 1.4: Occupations with the most job growth, 2010 and projected 2020

(Numbers in thousands)

00-0000	Total, All Occupations	143,068.2	163,537.1	20,468.9	14.3	$33,840
29-1111	Registered Nurses	2,737.4	3,449.3	711.9	26.0	64,690
41-2031	Retail Salespersons	4,261.6	4,968.4	706.8	16.6	20,670
31-1011	Home Health Aides	1,017.7	1,723.9	706.3	69.4	20,560
39-9021	Personal Care Aides	861.0	1,468.0	607.0	70.5	19,640
43-9061	Office Clerks, General	2,950.7	3,440.2	489.5	16.6	26,610
35-3021	Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food	2,682.1	3,080.1	398.0	14.8	17,950
43-4051	Customer Service Representatives	2,187.3	2,525.6	338.4	15.5	30,460
53-3032	Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers	1,604.8	1,934.9	330.1	20.6	37,770
53-7062	Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand	2,068.2	2,387.3	319.1	15.4	23,460
25-1000	Postsecondary Teachers	1,756.0	2,061.7	305.7	17.4	45,690
31-1012	Nursing Aides, Orderlies, and Attendants	1,505.3	1,807.2	302.0	20.1	24,010
39-9011	Childcare Workers	1,282.3	1,544.3	262.0	20.4	19,300
43-3031	Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks	1,898.3	2,157.4	259.0	13.6	34,030
41-2011	Cashiers	3,362.6	3,612.8	250.2	7.4	18,500
25-2021	Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education	1,476.5	1,725.3	248.8	16.8	51,660
43-4171	Receptionists and Information Clerks	1,048.5	1,297.0	248.5	23.7	25,240
37-2011	Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners	2,310.4	2,556.8	246.4	...

[Click here to see the rest of this article]

Asbestos Bankruptcy: Judge denies motion to keep Garlock trial open

Today's post was shared by Legal Newsline and comes from legalnewsline.com

Legal Newsline’s efforts to keep a North Carolina bankruptcy trial open to the public have failed.

Attorneys for Legal Newsline filed a motion Tuesday to keep the entire trial open to the public.

On Wednesday, Hodges denied Legal Newsline’s motion, saying none of the seven orders previously entered in the case relating to confidentiality of documents had been challenged by Legal Newsline or anyone else. Nor did Legal Newsline appear with respect to a motion by Garlock, which Hodges denied, to remove the confidentiality designation from certain documents.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge George R. Hodges had closed the courtroom to the news media and the public during a portion of a law professor’s testimony last week in the asbestos bankruptcy case filed by Garlock Sealing Technologies.

Your Big Mac Would Only Cost $.68 More If McDonalds Doubled Its Pay

Sweeping the nation is a wave of protests by fast food workers for higher wages. High wages result in higher workers' compensation rates/benefits. Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from thinkprogress.org

(Credit: AP)

If McDonalds were to double the salaries and benefits of all of its employees, from the CEO down to the minimum wage cashiers, it would still only cost an extra 68 cents for a Big Mac, according to a new report.

As fast food workers across the country are going on strike to demand a livable wage, University of Kansas research assistant Arnobio Morelix tells the Huffington Post that it would cost the average consumer mere cents to give them just that.

Currently, a minimum wage McDonalds employee makes $7.25 per hour. The CEO makes $8.75 million. But if the former were raised to $15 and the latter to $17.5 million, the dollar menu would only have to become the $1.17 menu and the Big Mac would go from $3.99 to $4.67, Morelix found.
These numbers underscore what low-wage workers already know: It would take very little for McDonalds to vastly improve the lives of those who make the company run. In fact, minimum wage raises have proven beneficial to a company’s bottom line.

Current wages for the lowest paid McDonalds workers are unworkable, and even the company knows that; a recent budget released by McDonalds told employees to get by through getting a second job and spending $0 on heating. Still, the company’s leadership has tried to frame itself as a charitable “above minimum wage” employer.

[Click here to see the rest of this article]

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