Stucco Contractor in NJ Receives OSHA Fines $70,000+ for Scaffolding Violations

Some of the most serious workplace injuries occur because of falls from scaffolding. Those construction site injuries result in major workers' compensation cases.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Paterson-based F&G Sons Contractors Inc., doing business as F&G Contractors Inc., with five repeat and one serious violation, including scaffolding and fall hazards, found at a Kinnelon work site. OSHA's October 2012 investigation was initiated in response to an imminent danger complaint and resulted in $70,840 in penalties.

The repeat violations, with a $67,760 penalty, include an unsecured scaffold missing cross braces, exposing workers to scaffold collapse and failing to fully plank and provide guardrails or other means of fall protection on scaffolds. A repeat violation is issued when an employer previously has been cited for the same or a similar violation of a standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. Similar violations were cited in 2009 and 2010.

AAJ Responds To WSJ Report About Rising Asbestos Claims

Workers' Compensation claimant's attorneys have lived through decades of denial and delay of asbestos disease claims by the asbestos industry and their suppliers, manufacturers and distributors of asbestos products. Asbestos, a known carcinogen, was marketed throughout the US for decades and still is not banned in the US. 

Click here to read

The energies and economies of the asbestos / insurance industry have been misplaced, for what now seems like generations. Instead of trying to defeat the claims, the asbestos industry, which gained enormous profit from trading in a deadly product, would best serve public health by supporting a total ban on asbestos manufacturing/importation and use in the US and support medical research for a cure for the rare and fatal malignancies it causes, ie. mesothelioma and lung cancer.

The following is a statement from American Association for Justice President Mary Alice McLarty, in response to theWall Street Journal story “As Asbestos Claims Rise, So Do Worries About Fraud:”

“Asbestos has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and 10,000 more will die this year.

“Countless lives could have been saved and lawsuits prevented if Big Asbestos had been transparent and disclosed the dangers of asbestos decades ago.  Instead, as more Americans die, this industry continues to invest massive resources into evading accountability, vilifying the victims and opposing a ban on asbestos. 

“The Wall Street Journal and Congress should not be aiding this campaign to let Big Asbestos off the hook for killing Americans.”

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As the world's largest trial bar, the American Association for Justice (formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) works to make sure people have a fair chance to receive justice through the legal system when they are injured by the negligence or misconduct of others—even when it means taking on the most powerful corporations. Visit http://www.justice.org/newsroom.

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Carbon Nanotubes Exposure Linked to Lung Tumor Formation in Mice

"Earlier today, at the annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology, NIOSH researchers reported preliminary findings from a new laboratory study in which mice were exposed by inhalation to multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT).  The study was designed to investigate whether these tiny particles have potential to initiate or promote cancer.  

By “initiate,” we mean the ability of a substance to cause mutations in DNA that can lead to tumors.  By “promote,” we mean the ability of a substance to cause cells that have already sustained such DNA mutations to then become tumors. "

See the NIOSH Science Blog

Another Asbestos Company Files for Bankruptcy: Rapid American / Philip Carey Manufacturing Co.

On Friday Rapid-American Corp., successor to asbestos liability of Philip Carey Manufacturing, filed for bankruptcy protection. Philip Carey was established in 1888 and was a long-time manufacturer of insulation products containing asbestos fiber.

Asbestos litigation was initiated in the 1970's for health conditions arising out of the exposure to asbestos products including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. 

One of the successor companies was Celotex that had filed for bankruptcy protection previously. The Celotex bankruptcy fell shirt of covering the financial responsibilities of the asbestos litigation claims, and the responsibility fell upon Rapid America.

Hospitals Are Become Even Deadlier Places for Sick People

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has reported that lethal drug-resistance bacteria is making its appearance at a growing rate at health care facilites. What has now been called a "nightmare of bacteria," CRE infections may now become a very serious complication of a work-related injury

"Drug-resistant germs called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, are on the rise and have become more resistant to last-resort antibiotics during the past decade, according to a new CDC Vital Signs report.  These bacteria are causing more hospitalized patients to get infections that, in some cases, are impossible to treat. 

CRE are lethal bacteria that pose a triple threat:

• Resistance: CRE are resistant to all, or nearly all, the antibiotics we have - even our most powerful drugs of last-resort.
• Death: CRE have high mortality rates – CRE germs kill 1 in 2 patients who get bloodstream infections from them.
• Spread of disease:  CRE easily transfer their antibiotic resistance to other bacteria.  For example, carbapenem-resistant klebsiella can spread its drug-destroying weapons to a normal E. coli bacteria, which makes the E.coliresistant to antibiotics also. That could create a nightmare scenario since E. coliis the most common cause of urinary tract infections in healthy people.

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$8 Million Verdict: DePuy Defective Hip Implant

A jury in California awarded a retired guard $8 Million as a result of suffering from a defective hip implant. The defective product, an ASR hip implant,  was manufactured by Johnson & Johnson. Many additional cases are pending though-out the country.

Read more about hip-implants and workers' compensation

Workers' Compensation: Knee Replacement Medical Device Recalled

Feb 27, 2013

4, 2013, DePuy issued an Urgent Medical Device Recall informing hospitals and surgeons of the problem and to immediately stop distributing or using the recalled lots. If a medical facility has the affected product in stock, it is ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Defective Artificial Hips Maybe a Costly problem for Workers

Dec 17, 2010

With an estimated 93,000 DePuy recalled artificial hips implanted worldwide, the workers' compensation benefit system will probably be paying for a vast amount of the remediation and treatment costs, and then having its ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Workers' Compensation: Hip Implants Recalled Due to Failure

Aug 27, 2010

DePuy release a statement today that they two products being recalled were: the ASR XL Acetabular System, a hip socket used in traditional hip replacement, and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System, a partial hip replacement ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Workers' Compensation: Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants: FDA Issues a ...

Jan 17, 2013

Johnson and Johnson has recalled 2 Hip Implants because of failure. The two implants were made by the DePuy Orthopaedics unit of Johnson and Johnson. The decision to withdrawn the products was based upon the fact .

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Jobs....a long way to go

The workers' compensation market/business is dependent on employment. The newly released statistics, while appearing encouraging, might not be so after all.

Despite today's promising numbers report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, some believe that the US has a very long way to go to get to full employment. Repeating the golden years is a very difficult road.

I commented a few years ago (Is The Recovery Of The Workers’ Compensation System An Illusion?) that workers' compensation is not necessarily anti-cyclical, ie. does not necessarily do better in down markets. That has been reflected in decreased manufacturing and insurance carrier insolvencies.