World TB Day — March 24, 2015

Workers who suffer from work-related tuberculosis maybe entitled to benefits under the NJ Workers' Compensation Act. The increased risk for occupational exposure to tuberculosis (TB) is recognized among health care and other workers exposed to persons with active TB and workers exposed to silica or other agents that increase the progression from latent to active TB. CDC Proportionate Mortality from Pulmonary Tuberculosis Associated With Occupations—28 States, 1979–1990. MMWR 1995; Vol. 44/No. 1:14-19.

A worker who was said to have had a pre-existing dormant tuberculosis was permitted to recover workers' compensation benefits as a result of working in an atmosphere containing impurities which were said to have reactivated the tuberculosis condition. Dawson v. E. J. Brooks & Co., 134 N.J.L. 94, 45 A.2d 892 (1946).

Where a 42 year-old worker was required to operate a rapidly propelled grinding wheel and was exposed to dust from the operation, recovery for the aggravation of a “pre-existing latent tuberculosis” was allowed. The medical witness asserted that the grinding wheel produced an excessive amount of dust which, in turn, caused a severe bronchitis resulting in irritation of the lung tissues and increased coughing, causing an aggravation of the underlying tuberculosis. Reynolds v. General Motors Corporation, 38 N.J.Super. 274, 118 A.2d 724 (Co.1955), aff'd 40 N.J.Super. 484, 123 A.2d 555 (App.Div.1956).

A foundry worker who suffered silicosis in the course of his employment as a molder was permitted recovery based upon the theory that the silicosis aggravated the petitioner's dormant tuberculosis condition. Masko v. Barnett Foundry & Machine Co., 53 N.J.Super. 414, 147 A.2d 579 (App.Div.1959), certif. denied 29 N.J. 464, 149 A.2d 859 (1959).

An individual working in a ribbon factory who was exposed to dust and fumes from carbon paper, teletype, and typewriter ribbons was permitted to recover disability as a result of the activation of an underlying tuberculosis condition by the dust and fumes. Bond v. Rose Ribbon & Carbon Mfg. Co., 78 N.J.Super. 505, 189 A.2d 459 (App.Div.1963), certif. granted 40 N.J. 499, 193 A.2d 137 (1963), aff'd 42 N.J. 308, 200 A.2d 322 (1964).

Each year, World TB Day is observed on March 24. This annual event commemorates the date in 1882 when Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB). World TB Day provides an opportunity to raise awareness about TB-related problems and solutions and to support worldwide TB control efforts.

For the second year, CDC supports the theme "Find TB. Treat TB. Working together to eliminate TB." Health officials in local and state TB programs are encouraged to provide educational awareness regarding TB to their communities and to work with other agencies and organizations that care for those most at risk for TB.

In 2014, a total of 9,412 new cases of TB were reported in the United States, a rate of 3.0 per 100,000 population (1). Although the total number of TB cases continues to decline, 2014 showed the smallest decline in incidence in over a decade. Nationally, TB still persists at greater incidence in foreign-born persons and racial or ethnic minorities.

CDC is committed to a world free from TB. Initiatives to improve awareness, testing, and treatment of latent TB infection and TB disease among groups at high risk are critical to achieve elimination of TB in the United States.

Additional information regarding World TB Day and CDC's TB elimination activities is available at http://www.cdc.gov/tb/events/worldtbday.

Reference

​1) ​Scott C, Kirking HL, Jeffries C, Price SF, Pratt R. Tuberculosis trends—United States, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2015;64:265–9

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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). 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.

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Is The Reserve Offset Heading for Extinction?

The Obama Administration is proposing stricter collection of workers' compensation payments data of Social Security beneficiaries.

Social Security-Budget Estimates and Related Information
Budget Overview, February 2015

"10. Establish Workers’ Compensation Information Reporting. Current law requires SSA to reduce an individual’s Disability Insurance (DI) benefit if he or she receives workers’ compensation (WC) or public disability benefits (PDB). SSA currently relies upon beneficiaries to report when they receive these benefits. This proposal would improve program integrity by requiring states, local governments, and private insurers that 23 administer WC and PDB to provide this information to SSA. Furthermore, this proposal would provide for the development and implementation of a system to collect such information from states, local governments, and insurers."

FY 2016 BUDGET OVERVIEW, p. 22
http://www.ssa.gov/budget/FY16Files/2016BO.pdf

With that information, the SSA can determine if the Federal Government is accurately calculating the Federal SSA/Workers' Compensation setoff.

 The obvious inequity, cost shifting, exists in those states where a reverse offset is taken. In those states, ie. NJ, the workers' compensation insurance company takes the offset credit, and NOT the Federal Government (SSA).

The collection and publication of this data will verify the inequity between States and the cost shifting to the Federal government in some states and not others.  A demand for the elimination of this inequity may result in the extinction of the Reverse Offset.

See:  The Gift That Keeps Giving: The SSA Reverse Offset

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The Switch to Daylight Savings Time Results in More Workplace Accidents

Researchers have reported that the switch to Daylight Savings Time (DST), moving clocks forward one hour ahead, is dangerous to the health of workers. Today marks yet another year when the US law mandates moving clocks one hour.

"...two researchers from Michigan State University have conducted a research project that could well contain the warning “Beware of the days after the change to Daylight Savings Time,” the second Sunday in March when an hour of sleep is lost as clocks jump ahead.

Using U.S. Department of Labor and Mine Safety and Health Administration data, Christopher Barnes and David Wagner, both doctoral candidates studying industrial and organizational psychology, found that the number of workplace accidents spikes after Daylight Savings Time changes every March.

On the other hand, they found no significant increase in workplace accidents or sleep loss when the clocks were set back an hour in November.

In two separate studies, they found that the March switch to Daylight Savings Time resulted in 40 minutes less sleep for American workers, a 5.7 percent increase in workplace injuries and nearly 68 percent more work days lost to injuries."

Click here to read the entire article.

See also, "Changing to Daylight Saving Time Cuts Into Sleep and Increases Workplace Injuries," Christopher M. Barnes, PhD, and David T. Wagner, PhD, Michigan State University; Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 94, No. 5

"Daylight Saving Time Transitions and Road Traffic Accidents", Tuuli Lahti et al., Journal of Environmental and Public Health, Volume 2010 (2010), Article ID 657167, 3 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2010/657167


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Union, Environmental Group Say Dozens of Nuclear Workers Suffering from Toxic Materials Exposure

Evidence “strongly suggests a causal link between chemical vapor releases and subsequent health effects" at a Washington facility, according to a recent report. (Ellery / Wikimedia Commons) Since March 2014, nearly 60 workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state have sought medical attention for on-the-job exposure to chemical vapors released by highly toxic waste stored at the site, some as recently as August. At a public meeting held Wednesday in Pasco, Washington, Hanford workers described symptoms that include chronic headaches, respiratory problems, nerve damage and bloody urine. The meeting, hosted by the United Association (U.A.) of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 598 and Hanford Challenge, a Seattle-based environmental watchdog group, was convened following the February 10 release by Department of Energy contractor Washington River Protection Services (WRPS) of a “corrective action implementation plan.” This plan was developed in response to recommendations in a report from the Savannah River National Laboratory released in October 2014. Commissioned in response to worker exposures at Hanford’s tank farms, the Savannah River report found ongoing emissions of toxic chemical vapors from waste tanks, inadequate worker health and safety procedures and evidence that “strongly suggests a causal link between chemical vapor releases and subsequent health effects.” The underground storage tanks—known as... [Click...

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The Extra Cost Of Extra Weight For Older Adults

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

Bayou La Batre calls itself the seafood capital of Alabama. Residents here depend on fishing and shrimping for their livelihood, and when they sit down to eat, they like most things fried.

It’s here that former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin has been trying to reverse the nation’s obesity epidemic one patient at a time. Benjamin grew up near Bayou La Batre and has run a health clinic in this town of seafood workers and ship builders since 1990. As obesity became commonplace around the U.S., health care providers like Benjamin began seeing the impacts of obesity all around them.

“We saw our patient population get heavier,” Benjamin said. “We saw chronic diseases start to rise, and if we continued, our entire community would totally be crippled, basically, based on chronic diseases.”

Two major trends are on a collision course here, as in the rest of the United States: a decades-long surge in obesity and the aging of the U.S. population. Today, one out of every three adults in the U.S. are clinically obese, and many who have lived for decades with excess weight, diabetes and heart disease are now heading into their senior years. Obese people are far more likely to become sick or disabled as they age, and researchers say this burgeoning demographic will strain hospitals and nursing homes.

“We’re potentially going to have a larger, older population that’s more likely to be obese,...


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Injured Workers Suffer As 'Reforms' Limit Workers' Compensation Benefits

Jeff Swensen for ProPublica

Dennis Whedbee's crew was rushing to prepare an oil well for pumping on the Sweet Grass Woman lease site, a speck of dusty plains rich with crude in Mandaree, N.D.

It was getting late that September afternoon in 2012. Whedbee, a 50-year-old derrick hand, was helping another worker remove a pipe fitting on top of the well when it suddenly blew.

Oil and sludge pressurized at more than 700 pounds per square inch tore into Whedbee's body, ripping his left arm off just below the elbow. Co-workers jury-rigged a tourniquet from a sweatshirt and a ratchet strap to stanch his bleeding and got his wife on the phone.

"Babe," he said, "tell everyone I love them."

It was exactly the sort of accident that workers' compensation was designed for.

Until...


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The workers’ compensation system is broken — and it’s driving people into poverty

There’s a good news/bad news situation for occupational injuries in the United States: Fewer people are getting hurt on the job. But those who do are getting less help.

That’s according to a couple of important new reports out Wednesday on how the system for cleaning up workplace accidents is broken -- both because of the changing circumstances of the people who are getting injured, and the disintegration of programs that are supposed to pay for them.

The first comes from the Department of Labor, which aims to tie the 3 million workplace injuries reported per year -- the number is actually much higher, because many workers fear raising the issue with their employers -- into the ongoing national conversation about inequality. In an overview of research on the topic, the agency finds that low-wage workers (especially Latinos) have disproportionately high injury rates, and that injuries can slice 15 percent off a person’s earnings over 10 years after the accident.





“Income inequality is a very active conversation led by the White House,” David Michaels, director of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, said in an interview. “Injuries are knocking many families out of the middle class, and block many low-wage workers from getting out of poverty. So we think it’s an important component of this conversation.”

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