Determinants of Respirable Crystalline Silica Exposure Among Stoneworkers Involved in Stone Restoration Work

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Objectives: Crystalline silica occurs as a significant component of many traditional materials used in restoration stonework, and stoneworkers who work with these materials are potentially exposed to stone dust containing respirable crystalline silica (RCS). Exposure to RCS can result in the development of a range of adverse health effects, including silicosis and lung cancer. An understanding of the determinants of RCS exposure is important for selecting appropriate exposure controls and in preventing occupational diseases. The objectives of this study were to quantify the RCS exposure of stoneworkers involved in the restoration and maintenance of heritage properties and to identify the main determinants of RCS exposure among this occupational group. Methods: An exposure assessment was carried out over a 3-year period amongst a group of stonemasons and stone cutters involved in the restoration and maintenance of heritage buildings in Ireland. Personal air samples (n = 103) with corresponding contextual information were collected. Exposure data were analysed using mixed-effects modelling to investigate determinants of RCS exposure and their contribution to the individual’s mean exposure. Between-depot, between-worker, and within-worker variance components were also investigated. Results: The geometric mean (GM) RCS exposure concentrations for all tasks measured ranged from <0 data-blogger-escaped-.02="" data-blogger-escaped-0.70mg="" data-blogger-escaped-m="" data-blogger-escaped-sup="" data-blogger-escaped-to="">−3. GM RCS exposure concentrations for work involving limestone and lime mortar were <0 data-blogger-escaped-.02="" data-blogger-escaped-m="" data-blogger-escaped-mg="" data-blogger-escaped-ndash="" data-blogger-escaped-sup="">...

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NFL moving closer to using helmet sensors

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With the NFL’s concussion liability regarding retired players on the way to being extinguished via settlement, the league can now focus on taking additional steps to limit liability to its current and future players. After months of delay, the NFL could soon be putting sensors in helmets. “Our goal is that by midseason we will have some teams geared up,” Kevin Guskiewicz, a University of North Carolina researcher and a member of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, said at a Wednesday event in Baltimore, via USA Today.  “We’re getting close, and I think that we have some teams identified.” The NFL previously had been chasing its tail regarding helmet sensors, with the league referring questions from ESPN regarding the league’s failure to use helmet sensors to Guskiewicz, who was publicly advocating the use of helmet sensors. Guskiewicz spoke openly in June 2012 about giving up on the effort to use sensors if the sensors weren’t used within the coming year.  At that same time, former Steelers receiver and current NBC analyst Hines Ward expressed concern about the approach. “You’re gonna open up a while Pandora’s Box with it,” Ward told ESPN.  “For a doctor to read a computer and tell me how hard I’ve been hit and to pull me out of a game, that won’t sit well with a lot of players.” It won’t, because many players want to try to persuade...

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Lobbyists: Postal Service will try to hike stamp price

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The troubled United States Postal Service is likely to vote to raise its prices at a Thursday meeting of its Board of Governors, according to top Washington lobbyists opposed to the hike. Greeting Card Association lobbyist Rafe Morrissey told reporters Wednesday that he expects the USPS to try to increase price of the 46 cent first-class stamp by 3 cents. That would consist of a 2 cent increase on top of a 1 cent inflation adjustment already expected in January. The magazine industry is anticipating as much as a double-digit increase for periodicals, another lobbyist source said. Currently, magazine postal rates average 27 cents per magazine. The Board vote would start a process of seeking emergency price-raising powers from the Postal Regulatory Commission. Congress under current law does not have a role in the process, but both the House and Senate are weighing overhauls of the USPS. “The Board seems to me moving down the path of filing an exigent case,” Morrissey said. “We don’t think that is part of a common-sense or sustainable solution.” He argued that the rate increase along with proposed reductions in service such as the end of Saturday delivery would only contribute to a agency's death spiral. The Greeting Card Association wants Congress to adjust the formula by which the USPS prefunds the future health benefits for its retirees and for it to consider delivering mail to curbside cluster boxes rather than individual...

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Procter & Gamble Eliminating Phthalates, Triclosan from Products Worldwide

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Procter & Gamble Eliminating Phthalates, Triclosan from Products WorldwideSafe cosmetics activists pressure other companies to stop using toxic chemicals in personal care products, fragrances Due to public pressure and growing concerns about the safety of chemicals found in common cosmetics, household cleaners and fragranced products, Procter & Gamble (P&G) will achieve total elimination of the toxic chemicals triclosan and diethyl phthalate (DEP) from all its products by 2014, according to an announcement on the company's website. P&G is the worlds largest manufacturer of consumer products, home to iconic brands including Cover Girl, Tide, Crest and Ivory. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics congratulates P&G for taking bold and globally-significant action to protect the health of its 4.8 billion consumers by eliminating two dangerous toxic chemicalstriclosan and DEPfrom all its products, said Janet Nudelman, program director at the Breast Cancer Fund and co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has been urging companies to eliminate phthalates from personal care products since 2002. Because of this pressure, many cosmetics companies have stopped using two dangerous phthalates, DBP and DEHP, but the industry has continued to widely use DEP in fragrance. P&G is taking an important step in the right direction, said Nudelman. Major multinational cosmetic companies have no...

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Judge Says Search Warrants for E-mails Must Be ‘Limited’

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

Can law enforcement obtain a search warrant to dig through a vast trove of e-mails, instant messages and chat logs because they have reasonable suspicion that the owners of those accounts robbed computer equipment from a private company? No, according to a ruling by a federal judge in Kansas earlier this week. The case is significant in that it limits what constitutes unreasonable search and seizure, as protected by the Fourth Amendment, in the age of big data. The magistrate judge, David J. Waxse, denied the government’s search warrant requests on the grounds that it has to be particular and “reasonable in nature of breadth.” Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University and an expert on surveillance law, interpreted it this way on Twitter: “You can’t look through the kitchen sink to get the evidence, as you do with physical searches.” Prosecutors sought search warrants to extract information from Verizon, an Internet service provider, GoDaddy, a Web site hosting company, along with Web communications companies Google, Skype and Yahoo on account holders suspected of having stolen $5,000 in computer equipment from Sprint. The government believed that the suspects used e-mail and instant-message accounts to “facilitate the purchase, receipt and transportation of the equipment” from Kansas to New Jersey. The government sought “contents of all emails, instant messages and chat logs/sessions — and other...

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Ex-NFL Player Loses Workers' Comp Appeal Against Steelers

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A former defensive end with the Pittsburgh Steelers football team lost his bid for workers’ compensation Thursday after the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court found that a 2004 injury that ended his season did not result in a loss of earnings despite his never playing professionally again. A three-judge panel agreed that testimony from a pair of orthopedic surgeons who treated Ainsley Battles after a season-ending hamstring tear in 2004 proved that the player sufficiently recovered from the injury to continue pursuing his football career prior to his ultimate retirement in 2006. “Both doctors agreed that claimant’s injury would not prevent him from playing professional football, and neither doctor suggested that claimant’s injury caused a loss in earning power after he completed his rehabilitation,” the court ruled in a decision penned by Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt. Battles had asked the Commonwealth Court to overturn a decision by the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board which found that the Steelers had no duty to pay the player for disability following the injury. Battles, who previously played for the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Buffalo Bills before signing a one-year contract with the Steelers, tore his hamstring in his first game with the team in September 2004. According to court records, Battles was cleared to...

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Business Groups Call For More Changes To Workers' Compensation Laws

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from northernpublicradio.org

Despite a drop in the rate of workers' compensation insurance, Illinois businesses say the system is still too burdensome. In 2011, Illinois changed its workers' compensation laws.  The state Department of Insurance, the governor and others say  the changes worked: the workers' comp insurance rate is down 4.5 percent. Kim Maisch is a lobbyist representing the state association for small, independent businesses. "We need to go a lot faster towards greater reform, and we certainly need to make sure the politicians know the job is not done," Maisch said. Maisch says there should be more protections for businesses -- like making workers prove an injury really happened on the job rather than during off hours. Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) says Illinois' rates are still too high. "We still are not competitive with the states around us with regard to reforming our workers' compensation system," Kay said. Kay says most of the savings comes from paying doctors less for treating injured workers, and he doesn't consider that "reform." He says Illinois needs to make employees prove an injury happened on the job before forcing a company to pay a settlement. But his proposed changes didn't gain any traction in the General Assembly. Unions have fought that change, saying a higher burden of proof is unfair to workers. Illinois Public Radio's Amanda Vinicky contributed to this report.

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