Workplace Health

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The hand is the part of the body most often injured and these injuries are sometimes difficult to heal. Hand injuries are preventable. By identifying hazards and developing safety measures, you and your employer can prevent your hands from being among the 500,000 injured in Canada every year.

Many types of injuries can lead to compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome is a condition in which there is swelling and an increase in pressure within a limited space (a compartment) that presses on and compromises blood vessels, nerves, and/or tendons that run through that compartment; and thus may cause death of all tissue in the compartment and other distal tissue.

Intricate in design and function, the hand is an amazing work of anatomic engineering. Form follows function in the hand; therefore, any injury to the underlying structures of the hand carries the potential for serious handicap. To reduce this risk, even the smallest hand injuries require proper medical evaluation.

By 2030, you — and every U.S. taxpayer — could be paying $244 a year to care for heart failure patients, according to an American Heart Association policy statement. The statement, published online in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Heart Failure, predicts that the number of people with heart failure could climb 46 percent from 5 million in 2012 to 8 million in 2030.

The nation’s annual food safety report card is out and it shows that 2012 rates of infections from two germs spread commonly through food have increased significantly when compared to a baseline period of 2006-2008, while rates of most others have not changed during the same period.

In the first long-term study of the health impacts of the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse on September 11, 2001, researchers at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York have found substantial and persistent mental and physical health problems among 9/11 first responders and recovery workers.

Treating a common sleep disorder doesn’t just improve sleep; it also has a beneficial affect while the sleeper is awake – in the workplace. In a new study, patients who underwent three months of treatment for sleep apnea, a common sleep disorder, reported significant improvements in their daytime sleepiness levels and work productivity.

President Obama’s recently released budget proposal for fiscal year 2014 fails to adequately fund key health programs, according to Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

Lead poisoning has been recognized as a major health problem in this country since at least the 1930s, but it continues to threaten many Americans, particularly children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines last week estimating that roughly 535,000 youngsters may have unsafe levels of the toxic metal in their blood.