Workplace Injuries

• Basic Lung Test Not Given to World Trade Center Workers

  Shannon Weidemann | March 28, 2007 4:39 PM | 0 CommentsNew York City, NY

  A basic breathing test for those that suffer from World Trade Center Illness is not being given to 60 percent of HMO patients. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases, or COPD, is a common ailment for those who worked in the clean up effort at Ground Zero. It includes things such as bronchitis and emphysema. The HMOs throughout the state were asked whether their doctors give breathing-capacity...

• Worker killed in fall down open air shaft

  Barry Doyle | March 28, 2007 9:28 AM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  In Buffalo, a construction worker fell 30 feet down an open air shaft. Guard rails had been put in place at the entry to the air shaft but were missing at the time of the fall.The worker sustained fatal injuries as a result of the fall.Floor openings such as the open air shaft pose a serious risk to workers on a construction site. Becxause of this, OSHA regulations require that openings such...

• Drugs Sales Reps Sue for Unpaid Overtime

  Aubrey Ford | March 28, 2007 9:17 AM | 0 CommentsRichmond, VA

  Class action lawsuits filed on behalf of thousands of pharmaceutical sales representatives involve allegations of unpaid overtime against eight major drug companies. The essence of the claims involves demands for overtime compensation for the hours that the drug representatives spend attempting to push the particular pharmaceutical drugs in the doctors' offices. There are more than a dozen...

• Construction Worker Thought He Was Going to Die

  Beth Janicek | March 26, 2007 4:55 PM | 0 CommentsSan Antonio, TX

  On Wednesday, March 21, 2007, Lawrence Martinez, a 32 year old construction worker, was laying a sewer line for a Northwest Side development, when the trench collapsed. Mr. Martinez was practically completely covered by dirt. His co-workers spotted his head and started digging with their hands. "His mouth was getting trapped with dirt," said Noel Panniagua, his supervisor and owner of...

• Employers That Provide Blackberries to Employees Must Prohibit Texting While Driving or Face Liability

  Jack Landskroner | March 24, 2007 10:32 PM | 0 CommentsCleveland, OH

  The Workers Comp Insider Blog raises a very interesting and concerning work related issue in its posting March 16, 2007 concerning employee use of Blackberry or cellular devises and the practice of texting while driving. As if we don't have enough distractions as we hurtle ourselves from Point A to Point B in four ton vehicles, we read that DWT - driving while texting - has become an issue of...

• Firefighters Heart Risk Covered By Workers' Compensation

  Ricky Bagolie | March 23, 2007 8:01 AM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  According to the Houston Chronice, a recent Harvard Study finds that firefighters run a 100 times greater risk of a heart reated death whie putting out a fire than when they are not fighting fires. Thirty two percent of the heart related deaths occurred this way. Heart disease, caused by exposures to diesel fumes and carbon monoxide and heart attacks caused by the stress of fighting fires...

• Knowledge of hazards key to trench collapse prevention

  Barry Doyle | March 23, 2007 7:01 AM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  The foreman of a Texas plumbing crew admitted that he was not familiar with the federal regulations which are intended to protect workers against the hazards of a trench collapse. As a result, he sent his crew into a trench that had been dug three weeks earlier. Intervening rainstorms had weakened the walls of the trench, leading to a collapse which trapped one of his co-workers.The trapped...

• Worker Pulled From Collapsed Trench Lucky to Survive

  Jack Landskroner | March 22, 2007 11:34 AM | 0 CommentsCleveland, OH

  An Akron area man was flown to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland Wednesday after being buried to his waist in mud for more than two hours after a trench collapsed. The worker, Malcolm Ferguson, 51, of Akron, suffered broken bones in his lower leg, and possibly a large-bone break, Reminderville, Ohio fire officials said.Trench collapses can be deadly and are usually caused by a failure to...

• Danger in Working Teens

  Beth Janicek | March 22, 2007 10:00 AM | 0 CommentsSan Antonio, TX

  Federal child labor laws prohibit teens from performing many tasks. Teens under the age of 18 are not supposed to work use certain types of equipment, serve and sell alcohol, or work long hours.The report from the University of North Carolina said some of the working conditions found in interviews with a representative sample of 928 teenage workers violated federal law."Teens are exposed to...

• 9/11 victims and responders exposed to toxins

  Staff Writer | March 21, 2007 11:02 AM | 0 CommentsNew York City, NY

  Those people who were at Ground Zero on 9/11/01 or during a certain period of time afterward may have been exposed to a number of dangerous toxins that could cause serious injury or death.The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a report following the collapse fo the World Trade Center with toxic materials and their amounts. Some of the items listed in the report include:1.2 million...