National Asbestos Week, April 1-7, 2014

Statement from Acting Surgeon General Boris Lushniak about National Asbestos Week, April 1-7, 2014

National Asbestos Awareness Week, April 1 – 7, is an important opportunity to focus on the public health issues associated with asbestos exposure and related illnesses.

"Asbestos" is a commercial name for a collection of six highly durable fibrous minerals used for decades in thousands of commercial products, such as insulation and fireproofing materials, automotive brakes and textile products, cement and wallboard materials. Scientists have long understood that asbestos can cause mesothelioma, lung cancer, and other lung diseases when the fibers are inhaled. Because of concerns about health effects, exposures to asbestos and certain uses of asbestos have been regulated in the U.S. for over 30 years.

In general, the greater the exposure to asbestos, the greater the chance an individual has of developing harmful health effects. Asbestos fibers may be released into the air where they can be easily inhaled and contaminate the surrounding area during demolition work, building or home maintenance, repair, and remodeling.

For workers or homeowners, avoiding activities involving the disturbance of materials or products containing asbestos is the surest means of avoiding asbestos exposure. However, if you need to undertake such activities, there is guidance available to help you protect yourself and others. While most individuals exposed to asbestos, whether in the home or workplace will not develop disease – there is no known safe level of asbestos exposure and precautions should be taken to protect your health. Apparent symptoms and disease may take many years to develop following exposure, and asbestos-related conditions can be difficult to identify. It’s important to note that tobacco smoke greatly increases your risk of lung cancer if you have already been exposed to asbestos. Anyone who believes he or she has been exposed to asbestos should contact their health care provider for additional advice.

To learn more about asbestos and asbestos-related diseases, please visit:
http://www2.epa.gov/asbestos
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/substances/toxsubstance.asp?toxid=4
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/asbestos/
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/asbestos/

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….

Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

Utility Cited for Violating Pollution Law in North Carolina

North Carolina regulators said Monday that five power plants owned by Duke Energy have been cited for violating water pollution laws, three days after announcing a similar action against Duke’s plant in Eden, N.C., where 39,000 tons of coal ash fouled the Dan River last month.

The citations, which charge Duke with failing to obtain storm-water permits under federal law, could lead to fines of $25,000 per day for each of the six plants.

The enforcement actions by the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources came after weeks of public outrage about the spill. But according to documents in recent court proceedings, regulators within the agency have tried for several years to force Duke to bring its plants into compliance, only to be frustrated time and again.

“Over the last year and a half, we repeatedly asked for a status and direction on these, and we have been given none,” an environmental engineer in the department wrote to colleagues in September, referring to efforts to require storm-water permits.

Current and former employees of the environmental agency have said that under the administration of Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, and the Republican-controlled legislature, regulators were told to play down enforcement of pollution laws in favor of spurring economic activity and jobs.

Last year, after environmental groups said they would sue Duke over pollution from its coal ash ponds at power plants,...

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A Step Toward Justice in College Sports?

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

If you were going to hold up a school as being exemplary in the way it puts athletics in, as they say, “the proper perspective,” Northwestern University would certainly be one you’d point to. For instance, although it lacks the kind of winning tradition — at least in the big-time sports — that other schools in the Big Ten can boast of, it proudly points to the 97 percent graduation rate of its athletes. Yet buried in last week’s decision by Peter Sung Ohr, the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board — in which he said that the Northwestern football team had the right to form a union — was this anecdote about Kain Colter, the former Northwestern quarterback who is leading the union effort. In his sophomore year, dreaming of going to medical school someday, Colter “attempted to take a required chemistry course.” However, “his coaches and advisors discouraged him from taking the course because it conflicted with morning football practices.” Eventually, after falling behind other pre-med students, he wound up switching his major to psychology, “which he believed to be less demanding,” according to Ohr. Ohr’s essential point was that unlike the rest of the student body at Northwestern, football players had little control over their lives. Their schedules were dictated by the needs of the football team. They had bosses in the form of coaches and other university...

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U.S. Agency Knew About G.M. Flaw but Did Not Act

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

Federal regulators decided not to open an inquiry on the ignitions of Chevrolet Cobalts and other cars even after their own investigators reported in 2007 that they knew of four fatal crashes, 29 complaints and 14 other reports that showed the problem disabled air bags, according to a memo released by a House subcommittee on Sunday.

Then in 2010, the safety agency came to the same decision after receiving more reports that air bags were not deploying.

The memo also revealed that General Motors approved the faulty design of the switch in 2002 even though the company that made the part, Delphi, warned the automaker that the switch did not meet specifications. This followed a warning the year before — when the Saturn Ion was being developed — but G.M. said that “a design change had solved the problem,” according to the memo.

The striking new details in the memo bolster the contention that both G.M. and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than previously acknowledged, ignored or dismissed warnings for more than a decade about a faulty ignition switch that, if bumped, could turn off, shutting the engine and disabling the air bags. General Motors has recalled nearly 2.6 million cars and has linked 13 deaths to the defect.Late Sunday, the safety agency said in a statement, “As we have stated previously, the agency reviewed data from a number of sources in 2007, but the data we had available at the time did not...

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Three Companies to Repay EPA for Costs of Cleaning Up Contaminated Site in Clifton, New Jersey

(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced legal agreements with Clifton 2003, L.L.C, Hampshire Generational Fund, L.L.C and WEA Enterprises Co., Inc. to repay $2.1 million spent by the EPA to clean up contamination at Abrachem Chemical, a former bulk chemical packaging facility in Clifton, New Jersey. When the EPA began its investigation and cleanup of the site in 2008, it reeked of caustic chemicals and solvents that were leaking from rusted and mislabeled drums. Sampling of the contents of over 1,600 drums revealed the presence of hazardous materials, including corrosive and flammable chemicals, benzene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and volatile organic chemicals. Exposure to these chemicals can have serious health impacts, including an increased risk of cancer.

“The legal agreements to recover the considerable costs of the Abrachem Chemical cleanup means that the responsible parties will bear the financial burden for cleaning up this site, not taxpayers, “ said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. “The Abrachem Chemical site was found in a horrible state of disrepair and posed serious risks to the health of people in the surrounding community. Today the site is cleaned up, people’s health has been protected, the property is being productively used for a new business and the responsible parties are footing the majority of the bill.”

After being contacted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in 2008, the EPA conducted an initial investigation and found that Abrachem was improperly storing drums and bulk containers of known and unknown chemicals in seventeen, 43-foot long shipping containers and elsewhere on the property. Drums at the site were leaking and there was a strong chemical odor emanating from the facility. However, the EPA was unable to clean up the site because Clifton 2003, one of the site owners, refused to grant EPA full access to its property. In January 2009, the EPA got a warrant from a federal judge that allowed access to the property to start a cleanup.

The EPA first removed drums of the unknown chemicals from the shipping containers and moved them into the facility for staging and sampling to determine what they were. On several occasions over the course of the seven-month cleanup, areas of the surrounding community were evacuated with the assistance of local and state authorities when unknown and potentially explosive chemicals were discovered.

The EPA also identified the chemicals in the mislabeled drums and, when possible, identified where the drums had originated. Hundreds of containers were returned to their owners, while others were disposed of by the EPA at licensed hazardous waste disposal facilities out of the area. The floors inside the facility were washed and decontaminated and all debris and trash removed. The EPA completed its work in September 2009.

The Superfund program operates on the principle that polluters, not taxpayers, should pay for the cleanups. The EPA works hard to recover taxpayer dollars spent on the cleanup of abandoned and polluted sites. In this instance, more than 82 percent of the costs will be repaid through EPA’s enforcement action and resulting agreements.

For more information including an archived 2009 video about the Abrachem site, visithttp://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/removal/abrachem/.

Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://twitter.com/eparegion2 and Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.

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The Degree of Employer Control Determines Compensability in an Off-Premises Parking Lot Case

The NJ Supreme Court declared the nature of the employer's control determines compensability in an off-premises parking lot claim. The Court ruled that the NJ 1979 Legislative amendments mandate that the "coming and going" rule bars such a workers' compensation claim when an employee is injured on a public street while walking to and from a public parking lot.

The Court held that even though the employer provided a parking pass to the employee to park in the public lot, that since the employer did not own, maintain or exercise control over the lot nor the route that the employee must take in commuting to the employer's premises, the employee could not pursue a workers' compensation claim.

The element of "control" pervades many issues in workers' compensation including "employment status. NJ has "The Right to Control Test" that is utilized in determining the employment status of the employee.. This is been a major factor in misclassification of workers and the eligibility of workers' compensation cover.

Hersh v. County of Morris A-59 NJ Supreme Court, Decided April 1, 2014.

Note: This cases and others will be the subject the NJ Hot Topics in Workers' Compensation Law Seminar on June 18, 2014. Both Lewis Stein, Esq. and John R. Tort, Jr., Esq., who were the lead counsel representing the parties involved in the litigation, will participating in the upcoming seminar.

Click here to register today.

Textual Despondency

No, this is NOT an April fool's joke. Texting is a major problem and a major distraction from the focus of work. Even if occurring within the scope of employment, it is still a major factor in concentration and is therefore a safety concern. Today's guest post is from David Paolo.

This condition reportedly has been a "world wide health concern" since around 2011 when conditions associated with excessive cell phone usage for texting and other mobile communications activities other than a phone call were starting to be identified. A couple of weeks ago I was in San Francisco for the California Workers' Compensation Institute's annual meeting. San Francisco must be the leading city where this "condition" could be studied. I was astounded at how many people walk around that town with their necks bent towards the ground, small devices in hand, paying zero attention to where they are, where they're going, or anyone or anything around them. The number of people with zero spatial orientation or situational awareness as a result of profound hand-held device distraction was amazing to me. Even in the elevator of the hotel where normally cellular signals aren't strong, if existent at all, a couple of gentlemen occupied the car as I got on heading to upper floors; they both were completely immersed in their devices. They did not look up, acknowledge my presence in any way or even acknowledge each other. We got to the seventh floor and, without even a short little glance above the screen in his hand held one fellow starts toward the open doors and says, I presume to the other guy in the elevator, "see you at dinner." The other guy, likewise, did not take his stare off the screen of his hand held device, thumb busy scrambling...

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Nov 03, 2013

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... drive on the roads. While the Federal government has strictly enforced the no texting while driving rule, the states maintain a patchwork of confusing regulations and statutory prohibitions. Today's post is shared from nj.com.

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

Workers' Compensation: Do Cities Need Texting Zones?

Oct 01, 2013

Andrew M. Cuomo revealed a plan to put "texting zones" on the New York State Thruway and state highways, where drivers can pull over and respond to text messages. This is, in part, a response to the fact that New York has ...

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Texting a Message to A Driver Imposes Liability for an Accident

Aug 30, 2013

who is texting from a location remote from the driver of a motor vehicle can be liable to persons injured because the driver was distracted by the text. We hold that the sender of a text message can potentially be liable if an ...

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

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