Legislative measure that would compensate first responders for cancers and post-traumatic stress disorder are among the “hot topics” in workers comp identified in a recent update from the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), which monitors issues that could potentially impact the workers compensation system.
More than three in four U.S. employees (76 percent) have dealt with issues negatively affecting their mental health, according to new survey results from the American Heart Association (AHA). A whopping 96 percent of the workers surveyed said that mental health is as important as physical health.
The online survey also revealed that 42 percent of employees say they have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder by a healthcare professional.
Although U.S. OSHA updated its occupational silica standard in 2016 for the first time in 45 years, relatively few countries have followed suit. Aside from a handful of European countries, some Canadian Provinces and Mexico, most other countries do not have as stringent of a standard as the current U.S. Permissible Exposure Limit of 0.05 mg/m^3.
Coal mining is an important part of the U.S. economy. In 2017, about 30% of our electricity was generated by coal-fired power plants. Coal is also used to make steel and in manufacturing many types of products. And anyone who watches the news knows how important the jobs and income provided by coal mining are to our country’s coal mining regions.
Nearly three workers die every week (as calculated over a five-year period) from exposure to electricity – a total of 739 deaths during that period. One-fifth of the victims were self-employed. Most fatalities (417) were caused by direct exposure to electricity, such as touching a live wire.
Perhaps you read about the NIOSH study published in late August that found construction workers die of drug overdoses (not while on the job) at a rate six times higher than the general work population. Heroin was the main killer, followed by prescription opioids.
Besides breakups and meeting “shawty” on the dancefloor, pop music obsesses over another aspect of contemporary culture: working nine-to-five. Since Elvis Costello penned Welcome to the Working Week in ’77, Dolly’s hit about tumbling out of bed to pour “a cup of ambition” has been streamed 8.46 million times and The Bangles’ Manic Monday dominated the charts in over ten countries.
Picking up the pieces for those who were devastated by Hurricane Florence involves more than discarding flood-damaged furniture or finding a new place to live.
In addition to the harming physical health and property, natural disasters can affect mental health as well, according to the American Psychological Association (APA).
It may seem obvious, but it bears repeating: loud noises can cause permanent hearing loss. And once hearing is gone, you can’t get it back.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) wants to remind people during October – National Protect Your Hearing Month – that noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) can be prevented. According to NIOSH, about 70% of people who are exposed to loud noise never or seldom wear hearing protection.
In a busy hospital emergency room, health care professionals administered Narcan to a patient suffering from a drug overdose. The measure revived him, but he was furious with them for interfering with his “high.” He grabbed one of the physicians, Dr. Leigh Vinocur, by the throat and began choking her - an assault that ended only when a radiology technician was able to get the man in a choke hold and subdue him.
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