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Thursday, November 20, 2014

OSHA fines Stamford over police station asbestos

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from wtnh.com


Stamford police headquarters (File photo)
Stamford police headquarters (File photo)

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — Federal health and safety officials have fined Stamford about $2,700 for asbestos and water contamination at the city’s police headquarters.

The Advocate of Stamford reports (http://bit.ly/1uDRhUx) that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined the city for failing to protect workers from asbestos or screen employees for exposure.

The federal order requires Stamford to clean up asbestos waste and debris exposed in the building by March 2015. City officials are trying to decide whether to build a new police headquarters or repair and upgrade the station.

Water at the 65-year-old headquarters is contaminated with lead and isn’t safe for drinking or showering. The ventilation system can’t be used because it would distribute asbestos particles and jail cells are not built to modern standards that include suicide-prevention measures.

___

Information from: The Advocate, http://www.stamfordadvocate.com

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Report Finds Toxic Toys In Albany County

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from wamc.org

Black Friday is just around the corner, but parents are being urged to take care when buying toys this year. Several being sold in Albany County contain toxic chemicals that pose health risks to children, according a new survey. Researchers found a dozen toys on store shelves containing lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium and more – toxic chemicals that have been linked to cancers, cognitive impairments and hyperactivity.

The report entitled “Toxic Toys in Albany County” was presented in downtown Albany Monday by Clean and Healthy New York and the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund.

The group purchased and tested toys sold locally in October and November, including highly popular brands such as Lego and Hot Wheels, finding 12 different products laden with toxins. There was even a "Breast Cancer Awareness Charm Bracelet" that tested positive for the carcinogen cobalt and the toxic irritant arsenic.

Researchers examining the playthings detected nefarious substances including arsenic, cadmium, cobalt and lead. One product, a fairy bracelet charm, was composed of 25 percent cadmium.

Bobbie Chase Wilding, deputy director for Clean and Healthy New York, disclosed that just a tiny fraction of the children’s products for sale in Albany County were tested, and the report’s author said that it was not intended to be a comprehensive report on the safety of any product or...
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Exxon Mobil denies making spill papers secret

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.washingtontimes.com


FILE - In this Monday, April 1, 2013 file photo, oil covers the ground around a slide in Mayflower, Ark., days after a pipeline ruptured and spewed oil over lawns and roadways. The Pegasus pipeline ruptured last March in Mayflower, spilling thousands of gallons of oil into the area. Exxon Mobil is denying claims from plaintiffs in an oil spill lawsuit that it made all information about the maintenance and repair of an oil pipeline secret. The oil giant has blamed the rupture on manufacturing defects. (AP Photo/Jeannie Nuss, File)
n this Monday, April 1, 2013 file photo, oil covers the ground around a slide in Mayflower, Ark., days after a pipeline ruptured and spewed oil over lawns and roadways. The Pegasus pipeline ruptured last March in Mayflower, spilling thousands of gallons of oil into the area. Exxon Mobil is denying claims from plaintiffs in an oil spill lawsuit that it made all information about the maintenance and repair of an oil pipeline secret. The oil giant has blamed the rupture on manufacturing defects. (AP Photo/Jeannie Nuss, File)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Exxon Mobil has denied claims from plaintiffs in an oil spill lawsuit that it made all evidence about the maintenance and repair of the Pegasus pipeline in Mayflower secret.
Last month, the plaintiffs in the class-action suit said Exxon Mobil declared 872,000 pages of documents about the pipeline confidential. They asked a federal judge to order the company to prove why that information needed to kept from the public, arguing that the company was seeking “unprecedented judicial censorship of a dangerous and hazardous situation.”
The Pegasus pipeline ruptured last March in Mayflower, spilling thousands of gallons of oil into the area. The oil giant has blamed the rupture on manufacturing defects.
Exxon Mobil filed a response in court Thursday, saying it was untrue that it marked every single page given to plaintiffs as confidential, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (http://bit.ly/1zoEzsU ) reported.
The company has...
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Deadline Extended for G.M. Accident Claims

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.nytimes.com



The families of people killed or injured in crashes involving General Motors cars that had a deadly ignition switch defect will have an extra month to submit claims for payment under G.M.’s victim compensation program.
Kenneth R. Feinberg, who administers the compensation fund, has decided to extend the deadline to Jan. 31 to give more time to families who might not be aware of the program.
The extension comes a week after The New York Times revealed the identity of Jean P. Averill, who was killed in a 2003 crash of a Saturn Ion at the age of 81. Hers was the earliest fatality G.M. connected with the ignition defect. Until informed by The Times, the family had not known of the company’s compensation program or that it was eligible to receive a minimum of $1 million from the fund. At that time, the family said it had never been contacted by the automaker.
Mr. Feinberg said the decision to extend the deadline was not influenced by the “unfortunate failure to notify the Averill family,” but was rather intended to give more time to the hundreds of thousands of people just receiving notices about the program.
G.M. is sending out about 850,000 letters to new owners and registrants of used vehicles as well as people who did not receive notices because the addresses on file were incorrect. The company said notices had already been sent to more than 4.5 million current and former owners of affected cars.
Mr. Feinberg emphasized that the decision to extend the...
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Updated SB 863 Cost Monitoring Report Released

Today's post was shared by CAAA and comes from www.wcirb.com

The WCIRB has released its Senate Bill No. 863 WCIRB Cost Monitoring Report — 2014 Retrospective Evaluation which is part of a multi-year cost monitoring plan developed by the WCIRB following the signing of SB 863 by the California Governor on September 18, 2012.
This report includes an updated retrospective evaluation of the cost impact of a number of SB 863 provisions based on data emerging through the third quarter of 2014. Based on the most current information, the WCIRB estimates the impact of SB 863 is an annual net savings of $0.2 billion, or 1.2%, of total system costs.
Shown below are the principal findings of the Report:
  1. The impacts of increases to weekly permanent disability (PD) minimums and maximums for 2013 injuries are emerging consistent with initial projections. (The most significant increases to PD maximums did not become effective until 2014 and cannot be assessed based on post-SB 863 experience until next year.)
  1. Changes to PD ratings for adjustments related to future earning capacity (FEC) and PD add-ons were projected to increase average PD ratings by approximately 6% (prior to any impact from the Ogilvie v. City and County of San Francisco decision). This is generally comparable to data on early 2013 PD ratings from the Disability Evaluation Unit (DEU) which suggests an approximate 4% increase in average PD ratings.
  1. The changes to PD related to FEC were estimated to eliminate any increases to PD for the Ogilvie decision. While specific...
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10 Challenges for Workers’ Compensation


Today's post is shared frommynewmarkets.com/
Today’s challenges are also tomorrow’s opportunities depending on the viewpoint. Those same opportunities could also remain tomorrow’s challenges. This special report highlights 10 current workers’ compensation issues and offers opinion on why they could be tomorrow’s challenges for the line.
Wage & Salary Stagnation

wallet

Average U.S. base salary increases for 2014 held steady at 3 percent for the second year in a row, but pay raises still are roughly one percentage point below pre-recession levels, according to the annual Compensation Planning Survey by Buck Consultants.
Low to moderate pay wages haven’t helped the workers’ compensation market.
“Salary stagnation or low growth of wages will have a telling impact on the workers’ comp industry in the future for the simple reason that payroll growth is necessary in order to have premium growth,” says John Leonard, president and CEO of MEMIC, a Super Regional workers’ compensation specialist insurer based in Portland, Maine.
“If you consider that payroll is one of the basic components of developing a premium for a risk, once you have no growth or low growth that has a capping effect, so to speak, in terms of premium growth.”
Therefore the problem for tomorrow’s workers’ comp market will be not enough premium growth to cover the costs associated with the medical component of the claim dollar, Leonard says.
“We have seen over the past 20 to...
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Monday, November 17, 2014

Longtime Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship indicted

Today's post is shared from wvgazette.com/
Don Blankenship, the longtime chief executive officer of Massey Energy, was indicted Thursday on charges that he orchestrated the routine violation of key federal mine safety rules at the company’s Upper Big Branch Mine prior to an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners.
A federal grand jury in Charleston charged Blankenship with conspiring to cause willful violations of ventilation requirements and coal-dust control rules — meant to prevent deadly mine blasts —during a 15-month period prior to the worst coal-mining disaster in a generation.
The four-count indictment, filed in U.S. District Court, also alleges that Blankenship led a conspiracy to cover up mine safety violations and hinder federal enforcement efforts by providing advance warning of government inspections.
“Blankenship knew that UBB was committing hundreds of safety-law violations every year and that he had the ability to prevent most of the violations that UBB was committing,” the indictment states. “Yet he fostered and participated in an understanding that perpetuated UBB’s practice of routine safety violations, in order to produce more coal, avoid the costs of following safety laws, and make more money.”
The indictment also alleges that, after the...
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