An employer's duty to a employee's household contact was the focus of an oral argument recently before the NJ Supreme Court. The NJ Supreme Court reviewed the question, that was certified by the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals, to define the duty and its scope. The household contact, the fiance, subsequently spouse, suffered beryllium related disease causally related to the employee's toxic exposure.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query brakes. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query brakes. Sort by date Show all posts
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Friday, April 8, 2016
National Asbestos Awareness Week - US Surgeon General
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy on National Asbestos Awareness Week
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| Dr. Vivek Murthy US Surgeon General |
National Asbestos Awareness Week is April 1-7 – a good time to remind Americans about the health dangers of asbestos exposure. Asbestos, a natural mineral fiber that is found in rock and soil, was widely used as insulation and fireproofing material in homes, commercial buildings, ships and other products, such as paints and car brakes. In recent years, asbestos use has decreased dramatically after it was linked to illnesses, including lung cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Recall management poor at hospitals
| As the number of medical-device recalls has rapidly increased, so has the complexity of the recalls. That is raising questions about safety and risks for hospitals that mostly still track and locate faulty products manually. There were 1,190 recalls of medical devices in 2012, nearly double the 604 recalls reported to the Food and Drug Administration in 2003. In August, Customed, a Puerto Rico-based supplier of surgical kits, trays and packs, recalled 233 products because of sterility issues, making it the largest single-day recall in FDA history. Other high-profile recalls, such as the removal from the market of metal-on-metal hip implants starting in 2010, led to billions of dollars in lawsuits against the manufacturers and thousands of patients having to undergo revision surgery. Other recalls have been more obscure, such as when a supplier must issue corrective language for a user manual. Most if not all hospitals have recall management programs in place. The Joint Commission issued standards for hospital recall policies that detailed how to respond to recalls and alerts. But experts at the ECRI Institute, a not-for-profit that studies the safety and effectiveness of medical products and services, say not all hospitals are updating their programs to reflect the growth and complexity of today's recalls. “This issue is frequently flying under the radar of executives,” said Eric Sacks, ECRI's director of healthcare product alerts. “Supply chains are becoming... |
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
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...
[Click here to see the rest of this article]
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
G.M. Recalls Impalas and Cadillacs Over Risk of Brake Fires
 WASHINGTON — General Motors is recalling more than 221,000 vehicles because of a parking-brake defect that can cause brake pads to stay partly engaged, which can lead to “excessive brake heat that may result in a fire,” according to documents posted Saturday on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website. The recall covers 205,309 vehicles in the United States and 16,249 elsewhere, said Alan Adler, a G.M. spokesman. It includes 2014-15 Chevrolet Impalas and 2013-15 model Cadillac XTS cars. G.M. said it was not aware of any crashes, injuries or deaths from the defect. N.H.T.S.A. said the fire risk stemmed from the rear brakes generating “significant heat, smoke and sparks.” The agency also warned that drivers of affected vehicles might experience “poor vehicle acceleration, undesired deceleration, excessive brake heat and premature wear to some brake components.” The Impala has been at the center of numerous recalls and investigations this year, as G.M.’s string of recalls worldwide approaches 30 million vehicles. In February, the 2014 Impala was recalled for a transmission defect that could allow a parked car to roll away. In June, certain Impalas were recalled for ignition problems, and others for a joint fastener that was not torqued to specification. Then in July, G.M. recalled more Impalas over a possible loss of power steering, and later that month N.H.T.S.A. opened an investigation into the potential... |
Friday, October 20, 2023
New EPA Rule Will Lighten the Burden of Proving an Asbestos-Related Disease Claim
In many occupational asbestos claims, it has been challenging to establish that asbestos fiber was used in the workplace. That will soon change under recently announced US Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] Rules.
Monday, March 18, 2024
US Bans Asbestos
Today, March 18, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule to prohibit ongoing uses of chrysotile asbestos, the only known form of asbestos currently used in or imported to the United States. The ban on ongoing uses of asbestos is the first rule to be finalized under the 2016 amendments to the nation’s chemical safety law, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which received near-unanimous support in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. The action marks a major milestone for chemical safety after more than three decades of inadequate protections and serious delays during the previous administration to implement the 2016 amendments.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Investigation: Post-crash fires in small planes cost 600 lives
Trapped onboard 4-year-old died while they tried to save himThe fire ignited when the small airplane smashed into a parking lot and empty building in central Anchorage on a failed takeoff. Passersby ran to pull four burning people from the Cessna Skywagon. But when they tried to rescue 4-year-old Miles Cavner, the airplane cabin was engulfed in fire. As Stacie Cavner screamed that her son was burning, police officer Will Cameron spotted Miles on the cabin floor. Fire was scorching the boy's body — and keeping Cameron from saving him. "We tried to go back in for the young boy," Cameron reflected recently on the June 1, 2010, crash, "but at that point it was too much, so we couldn't get to him." Small-airplane fires have killed at least 600 people since 1993, burning them alive or suffocating them after crashes and hard landings that the passengers and pilots had initially survived, a USA TODAY investigation shows. The victims who died from fatal burns or smoke inhalation often had few if any broken bones or other injuries, according to hundreds of autopsy reports obtained by USA TODAY. Fires have erupted after incidents as minor as an airplane veering off a runway and into brush or hitting a chain-link fence, government records show. The impact ruptures fuel tanks or fuel lines, or both, causing leaks and airplane-engulfing blazes. Fires also contributed to the death of at least 308 more people who suffered burns or smoke inhalation as well as traumatic... |
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Wal-Mart workers plan Black Friday protests for higher pay
 Wal-Mart workers and their supporters plan to launch protests at stores across the country on Black Friday to push for higher wages and better working conditions for employees.Organizers say rallies and marches will occur at 1,600 Wal-Mart locations on the day after Thanksgiving in what they say will be the largest protests ever against the nation's biggest retailer. Backing the demonstrations is Our Wal-Mart, the union-supported group of employees that has been pushing for a living wage of $15 an hour and more full-time positions. A protest earlier this month at a Wal-Mart in Pico Rivera ended with the arrest of 23 people for unlawful assembly and failure to disperse. Martha Sellers, a cashier at the Wal-Mart store in Paramount, said her low salary forces her to rely on ramen noodles and sometimes peanut butter to survive. "The truth is it's not easy to talk about hunger and being hungry," Sellers said during a media call on Friday. She said she wants $15 an hour so she can buy groceries that are healthy. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said many of the protesters participating in the Black Friday demonstrations are being paid to show up by unions. "We have seen this story before about the protesters and unions threatening to protest in a large amount of stores," she said. "What it turns out to be is a handful of stores with a handful of associates." Large... |
Friday, November 21, 2014
Takata’s Switch to Cheaper Airbag Propellant Is at Center of Crisis
| The new airbag propellant was supposed to be the next big thing for Takata in 1998. An engineer for the company, Paresh Khandhadia, declared it “the new technological edge” in an interview with a trade magazine then. Based on a compound called tetrazole, it was seen as a reliable and effective compound for inflating airbags. Yet despite the fanfare, by 2001 Takata had switched to an alternative formula, ammonium nitrate, and started sending the airbags to automakers, including Honda. That compound, according to experts, is highly sensitive to temperature changes and moisture, and it breaks down over time. And when it breaks down, it can combust violently, experts say. “It shouldn’t be used in airbags,” said Paul Worsey, an expert in explosives engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The compound, he said, is more suitable for large demolitions in mining and construction. “But it’s cheap, unbelievably cheap,” he added. More than a decade later, that compound is at the center of a safety crisis involving Takata and its airbags. More than 14 million vehicles with the Takata-made airbags have been recalled worldwide over concern that they can explode violently when they deploy in an accident, sending metal debris flying into the cabin. At least five deaths have been linked to the defective airbags.  On Thursday, Takata’s decision to change the propellant is expected to be among the lines of questioning... |
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Mechanic can sue Ford for further damages in asbestos case
| The state Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed a former Bay Area service station owner to seek additional damages from Ford Motor Co. for exposing him to brake-lining asbestos that has afflicted him with terminal cancer. A jury awarded Patrick Scott $1.5 million in damages and legal costs against Ford in November 2012. Wednesday's order allows him to ask another jury for punitive damages. Scott and his wife, Sharon, have settled claims against other automakers for undisclosed amounts. Scott worked in a Navy shipyard, where he was also exposed to asbestos, before opening his first service station in Sausalito in 1965. He leased an Atlantic Richfield station in San Francisco in 1970, then moved his business to a Beacon station in St. Helena in 1977. He stopped working in 2011 after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, an incurable form of lung cancer that is caused by asbestos but typically does not show up until decades after exposure. Asbestos has long been used in the linings of motor vehicle brakes and clutches and is still used in brake pads, though it is banned in some other products. Scientists had established its connection to cancer by the mid-1950s, but the federal government did not regulate workplace asbestos exposure until 1971. According to court records, Ford mentioned asbestos in one of its publications in 1975 but did not put warnings on brake cartons until at least 1980. A Ford internal investigation cited by Scott's lawyers found mesothelioma among company... |
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
EPA Seeks Reporting of Asbestos Fibers
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule to require comprehensive reporting on all six fiber types of asbestos as the agency continues its work to address exposure to this known carcinogen and strengthen the evidence that will be used to protect people from this dangerous chemical further. Historically asbestos, a known carcinogen, has been present in workplaces causing significant occupational exposures to workers, sometimes fatal, and has generated a long wave of workers’ compensation claims.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Safety delays over faulty air bags
| THE NATIONAL Highway Transportation Safety Administration is widening its crackdown on air bags at risk of exploding — potentially killing or maiming the people they are supposed to protect. This is another case in which it has taken years for the government and car companies to come to grips with the full scale of a deadly automotive defect, demonstrating again that the nation’s vehicle safety monitors aren’t doing a good enough job. Takata is one of a few firms worldwide that manufacture air bags. The devices are supposed to deploy with enough force to provide protection in milliseconds, preventing dangerous impacts with other parts of a car. The bags at issue appear prone to deploy too violently, creating metal shards and propelling them toward people in the car. The problem has been linked to four U.S. deaths and many injuries — including those of Stephanie Erdman, who testified before a Senate panel on Thursday that she was blinded in one eye after her Honda air bag deployed. Takata air-bag recalls have been going on since 2008, but evidence of the problem began emerging long before that. The company admitted last week that Honda sent it photos of a burst air bag in 2005 that it failed to investigate. Since then, the scale of the problem has grown alarmingly. Air bags in humid places seem to be more at risk, suggesting some interaction between chemicals used to deploy air bags and moisture. Recalls first focused on 8 million cars in humid... |
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