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

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topics

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.cdc.gov

workers in PPE

"Asbestos" is a commercial name, not a mineralogical definition, given to a variety of six naturally occurring fibrous minerals. These minerals possess high tensile strength, flexibility, resistance to chemical and thermal degradation, and electrical resistance. These minerals have been used for decades in thousands of commercial products, such as insulation and fireproofing materials, automotive brakes and textile products, and cement and wallboard materials.

When handled, asbestos can separate into microscopic-size particles that remain in the air and are easily inhaled. Persons occupationally exposed to asbestos have developed several types of life-threatening diseases, including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. Although the use of asbestos and asbestos products has dramatically decreased in recent years, they are still found in many residential and commercial settings and continue to pose a health risk to workers and others.



NIOSHTIC-2 Search

NIOSHTIC-2 Search Results on Asbestos

NIOSHTIC-2 is a searchable bibliographic database of occupational safety and health publications, documents, grant reports, and journal articles supported in whole or in part by NIOSH.

Recommendations for Preventing Occupational Exposure to Asbestos

Asbestos Fibers and Other Elongate Mineral Particles: State of the Science and Roadmap for Research

DHHS (NIOSH) Publication Number 2011-159 (March 2011)

This document is intended as one step in the process. NIOSH intends to pursue...

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Rail Company Involved in Quebec Explosion Files for Bankruptcy

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

BANGOR, Me. — The railroad company whose runaway oil train caused a fire and explosion that killed 47 people in a small town in Canada filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday.

The company — Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in United States and Canadian courts, citing debts to more than 200 creditors after the July disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.

The company chairman, Ed Burkhardt, said previously that a bankruptcy filing was likely after service disruptions because its rail line remained closed in Lac-Mégantic. The company, based in Hermon, Me., also faces lawsuits and enormous cleanup costs related to the disaster.

The parked train, with 72 tankers full of crude oil, was unattended when it began rolling toward town, eventually derailing downtown. Several tankers exploded, destroying 40 buildings in the lakeside town of 6,000 residents.

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Fresno workers' compensation case highlights statewide problems

The activities of Sedgwick Claims continue to draw attention in California as the issue of inadequate delivery of medical care to injured workers becomes more acute. Workers' Compensation was intended as social remedial legislation providing benefits to injured workers in an efficient and effective manner. The system just isn't working any longer as the economics of reform emasculated the benefit program. Today's post was shared by Workers Comp Brief and comes from www.fresnobee.com


A workers' compensation company is being criticized for failing to provide medical care for a Fresno woman injured on the job more than 10 years ago.

The employee, Guadalupe Ortega, spoke out with her lawyer Tuesday morning during a press conference held by the California Applicants Attorneys Association across the street from her former employer, Lyons Magnus, a major food processor in Fresno.

Although doctors and Lyons Magnus confirmed her injuries are work related, the company's insurance carrier, Sedgwick Claims Management Services, only provided two years of temporary disability compensation — even though a qualified medical evaluator confirmed she is 70% disabled, Ortega said.

Ortega's plight highlights a larger problem for injured workers statewide who have run into more roadblocks over the past eight years to receive workers' compensation, said Ortega's lawyer, Brett Grove of Keeling Grove Law Offices in Fresno.

"Unfortunately, her experiences are not unique in the workers' compensation arena," Grove said.
Ortega's severe neck, shoulder and back injuries resulted in her losing her job, she said. Ortega became homeless, and her children were taken away from her.

"Sedgwick has turned my life into a living hell," Ortega said. "How can the state of California allow this insurance company to fail to pay legitimate claims?"

Sedgwick officials were unavailable for comment. The company is based in Memphis, Tenn., and calls itself the leading North American provider for...
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Garlock trial winds down; judge closes courtroom again

Asbestos bankruptcies have been problematic for injured workers and their families. The bankruptcies have drastically reduced benefits paid to individuals who have been exposed to asbestos fiber. Betting on time and delay, asbestos companies have utilized bankruptcy procedure to shield themselves from the economic consequences of asbestos disease: asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.Today's post was shared by Legal Newsline and comes from legalnewsline.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Legal Newsline) — The ongoing bankruptcy trial for Garlock Sealing Technologies wound down Monday with attorneys for the gasket manufacturing company and those representing asbestos claimants calling their last few witnesses with the judge closing the courtroom one more time during a lawyer’s testimony.

The bankruptcy trial, which began in July at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina and is expected to end later this month after a week-and-a-half break, will determine the estimated liability of the company for current and future asbestos claims. One of the central questions that will help establish how much Garlock will owe the claimants revolves around whether Garlock products, many removed decades ago, and no other sources of asbestos, led to cases of mesothelioma. Judge George Hodges will ultimately decide the estimated liability of the company for current and future asbestos claims and how much money the company will need to devote to a trust to escape bankruptcy.

David Glaspy, a California lawyer who has defended Garlock on more than 25,000 asbestos claims, testified that having disclosure of exposure information claimants against the company would have helped the company significantly in their defense.

To try and limit the company’s liability, Garlock attorneys are asserting that some plaintiffs, taking advantage of confidentiality provisions enacted for special trusts established to pay claimants who...
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Workers compensation hike on California employers proposed

The next wave of chronic problems for California's workers' compensation system is now emerging....increased costs. Despite over 3 decades of reform that has decimated the system, costs continue tosoar. It seems that everytime reformers take another bit out of the benefit program, another cost complication emerges. Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from blogs.sacbee.com


Last year, the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown enacted a major overhaul of the state's multi-billion-dollar system of compensating workers for job-related injuries and illnesses, aimed at stabilizing its costs.

The Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, however, believes that premiums for insurance that most employers carry to cover claims for treatment and cash benefits still should rise next year.
The independent bureau announced that taking into account the legislation's changes, premiums should rise by 3.4 percent next year to an average of $2.62 per $100 of payroll.

The recommendation is not binding, and insurers in the highly competitive workers comp market can charge whatever they wish. State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones also will weigh in with his recommendation.

The bureau also put another caveat on its recommendation - that it could be changed, depending on whether the state Division of Workers Compensation adopts a proposed new schedule of payments for physicians who treat job-related disabilities.

Last year's overhaul of the system, contained in Senate Bill 863, was a deal among most of the major stakeholders in the system, employers and labor unions most prominently. It followed a pattern of making major changes in the system roughly once a decade, usually after years of maneuvering by the major stakeholders.

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Speedway owner accused of workers comp fraud

Employer fraud is a major problem for workers' compensation programs. Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.pressconnects.com


The Tioga County Sheriffs Office, in cooperation with the New York State Workers Compensation Board, charged a 37-year-old Rochester man Thursday with 26 felony counts of offering a false instrument for filing.

Jason M. Bonsignore, of Edgemere Drive, was also charged with four counts each of failure to secure compensation for employees and fraudulent practice, also felonies under the New York State Workers Compensation Law.

The charges are the result of an investigation of Bonsignores business, Champion Speedway on Old Narrows Road in the Town of Owego.

Bonsignore was arraigned in the Town of Owego Court in front of Justice John Schumacher and released on his own recognizance.

Anyone who has any information on potential workers compensation fraud violations can visit www.wcb.ny.gov or call toll free at (888) 363-6001.
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Lead paint manufacturers facing California challenge

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.dailynews.com

In April, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised to 535,000 its estimate of the number of American children with potentially dangerous levels of lead in their blood.

But for U.S. communities combating the lead hazards, there might never be any money from the group some say is most responsible for creating the problem: The companies that made lead pigment used in the old, flaking paint still coating millions of dwellings.

The industry could be on the verge of defeating the last major legal assault by municipalities and states seeking damages to fund lead removal. Apart from one settlement, the industry has successfully defended roughly 50 lawsuits by states, cities, counties and school districts over the last 24 years.

Now, in a bench trial underway in San Jose, the industry is seeking a final victory in a case brought by 10 public agencies, including Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties and the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Diego. The suit seeks to force the defendants to inspect more than 3 million California homes, and to remove any lead paint hazards that are discovered, at an estimated cost of more than $1 billion.

Lead lawsuits once were expected by some experts to follow the path of tobacco litigation. States that sued to recover smoking-related health care costs wrested a $248 billion settlement in 1998 from cigarette makers.

As in the tobacco cases, public agencies in California and elsewhere hired

private law firms, including veterans of...

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