ExxonMobil Knew for Years About Defects in Ill-Fated Arkansas Pipeline

Today's post was shared by FairWarning and comes from www.fairwarning.org

Despite risks, oil giant added stresses to pipeline that eventually ruptured. Since at least 2006, ExxonMobil realized that its 1940s-era Pegasus pipeline had many manufacturing defects like the faulty welds that, in March, sent crude oil spewing into a Mayflower, Ark., neighborhood. Its seams were known to be prone to cracking, too. Still, Exxon added new stresses to the pipeline by starting to carry a heavier type of oil, reversing the direction of the flow and increasing the amount of crude surging through it. Separately, the costly oil spill cleanups in Mayflower and in Marshall, Mich., highlight the potential hazards of transporting heavy Canadian crude as the Obama administration nears a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. InsideClimate News, The New York Times

Lax reporting, scant oversight undermine 27-year-old program to track hazardous chemical storage. Under the U.S. Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, private and public operations must issue an inventory of potentially hazardous chemicals at their sites. The inventory, known as a Tier II report, is filed with state, county and local emergency-management officials. The information is then supposed to be made public to help first responders and residents plan for emergencies. But operations across the U.S. often misidentify chemicals or their location, and sometimes don’t report on the substances at all. The system has drawn scrutiny since April’s deadly...

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Improving Patient and Worker Safety: Opportunities for Synergy, Collaboration and Innovation

Today's post was shared by US Dept. of Labor and comes from www.osha.gov

What is healthcare?

Healthcare is involved, directly or indirectly, with the provision of health services to individuals. These services can occur in a variety of work settings, including hospitals, clinics, dental offices, out-patient surgery centers, birthing centers, emergency medical care, home healthcare, and nursing homes.

What types of hazards do workers face?

Healthcare workers face a number of serious safety and health hazards. They include bloodborne pathogens and biological hazards, potential chemical and drug exposures, waste anesthetic gas exposures, respiratory hazards, ergonomic hazards from lifting and repetitive tasks, laser hazards, workplace violence, hazards associated with laboratories, and radioactive material and x-ray hazards. Some of the potential chemical exposures include formaldehyde, used for preservation of specimens for pathology; ethylene oxide, glutaraldehyde, and paracetic acid used for sterilization; and numerous other chemicals used in healthcare laboratories.

How many workers get sick or injured?

More workers are injured in the healthcare and social assistance industry sector than any other. This industry has one of the highest rates of work related injuries and illnesses. In 2010, the healthcare and social assistance industry reported more injury and illness cases than any other private industry sector -- 653,900 cases (Table 2 [268 KB PDF, 29 pages]). That is 152,000 more cases than the next industry sector: manufacturing. In 2010, the...

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The woman who nearly died making your iPad

Foreign workers lack safety and health protections that exist under US laws. This story reflects what America was like without adequate workplace safety laws and enforcement. Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.theguardian.com

At around 8am on 17 March 2010, Tian Yu threw herself from the fourth floor of her factory dormitory in Shenzhen, southern China. For the past month, the teenager had worked on an assembly line churning out parts for Apple iPhones and iPads. At Foxconn's Longhua facility, that is what the 400,000 employees do: produce the smartphones and tablets that are sold by Samsung or Sony or Dell and end up in British and American homes.

But most famously of all, China's biggest factory makes gadgets for Apple. Without its No 1 supplier, the Cupertino giant's current riches would be unimaginable: in 2010, Longhua employees made 137,000 iPhones a day, or around 90 a minute.

That same year, 18 workers – none older than 25 – attempted suicide at Foxconn facilities. Fourteen died. Tian Yu was one of the lucky ones: emerging from a 12-day coma, she was left with fractures to her spine and hips and paralysed from the waist down. She was 17.

When news broke of the suicide spree, reporters battled to piece together what was wrong in Apple's supply chain. Photos were printed of safety nets strung by the company under dorm windows; interviews with workers revealed just how bad conditions were. Some quibbled over how unusual the Foxconn deaths were, arguing that they were in line with China's high rate of self-killing. However conscience-soothing that claim was in both Shenzhen and California, it overlooked how those who take their own lives are often elderly or women in...

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A Limit on Consumer Costs Is Delayed in Health Care Law

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

WASHINGTON — In another setback for President Obama’s health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care.

The limit on out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles and co-payments, was not supposed to exceed $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family. But under a little-noticed ruling, federal officials have granted a one-year grace period to some insurers, allowing them to set higher limits, or no limit at all on some costs, in 2014.

The grace period has been outlined on the Labor Department’s Web site since February, but was obscured in a maze of legal and bureaucratic language that went largely unnoticed. When asked in recent days about the language — which appeared as an answer to one of 137 “frequently asked questions about Affordable Care Act implementation” — department officials confirmed the policy.

The discovery is likely to fuel continuing Republican efforts this fall to discredit the president’s health care law.

Under the policy, many group health plans will be able to maintain separate out-of-pocket limits for benefits in 2014. As a result, a consumer may be required to pay $6,350 for doctors’ services and hospital care, and an additional $6,350 for prescription drugs under a plan administered by a pharmacy benefit manager.

Some consumers may have to pay even more, as some...

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NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topics

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

"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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