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A FairWarning story

Researcher says auto safety measures prevented millions of deaths

Christopher Jensen
March 13, 2018
Traffic safety measures ranging from seat belt and drunk driving enforcement to design standards for cars and trucks “averted a public health disaster” by preventing about 5.8 million deaths in the U.S. from 1968 through 2015, according to a new study. The analysis found that without federal and state policies, traffic deaths annually would “likely have been in the hundreds of thousands rather than tens of thousands” in recent years.
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Confined space incident costs worker both legs

March 13, 2018
One momentary decision in a hazardous workplace forever changed the lives of a worker who suffered grievous injuries and the co-worker whose actions inadvertently led to that injury. It also led to more than a quarter million dollars in fines against the company that employed them.
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radiation warning

Injured nuclear workers finally had support. The Trump administration has mothballed it.

An advisory board of scientists, doctors and worker advocates helped ensure that nuclear workers exposed to toxins received proper compensation. The terms of nearly all board members expired last month — and no new members have been appointed.
Rebecca Moss
March 13, 2018
Nearly three years ago, President Barack Obama responded to long-standing concerns that workers exposed to toxic chemicals at the country’s nuclear weapons labs were not receiving proper compensation. Obama created an advisory board to be composed of scientists, doctors and worker advocates. Their recommendations have led to significant changes, including the repeal of a rule that made it more difficult for workers who’d been injured in the last two decades to get compensation.
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psychology

Meditation can help reduce depression

March 13, 2018
People who suffer from some forms of depression may be able to get some non-pharmaceutical relief for their symptoms from mindfulness meditation training. A study appearing in the Annals of Family Medicine looked at primary care patients with subthreshold depression – something more than ordinary feelings of sadness but less than severe depression. The researchers found that in certain patients, mindfulness mediation proved to be a feasible method of preventing major depression.
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On-the-job amputation earns Ohio co. SVEP status

March 12, 2018
An OSHA investigation into a worker’s partial thumb amputation has resulted in safety citations and thousands of dollars in proposed fines against his employer. The injury occurred when the employee was clearing a jam on a bag sealing machine.
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Flying danger: Fla. company fined for hazmat-filled suitcases

March 12, 2018
A Florida computer company is facing a $63,750 fine for trying to send hundreds of lithium ion batteries by air from Miami to Buenos Aires, Argentina. According to the U.S Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), J&J Tech Group of Miami allegedly violated the Hazardous Materials Regulations when two passengers affiliated with the company offered three checked bags containing 318 lithium ion batteries for the February 22, 2017 flight.
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A Confined Space blog post

OSHA to employers who violate the recordkeeping rule: No problem!

Jordan Barab
Jordan Barab
March 12, 2018
Fewer than half of all employers required to send their injury and illness information into OSHA last year sent in the information. “The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was expecting about 350,000 summaries to be submitted by Dec. 31, the agency numbers provided to Bloomberg Environment March 7 show. Instead, employers required to participate submitted 153,653 reports, OSHA said.”
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No fall, head protection for Pa. construction company workers

March 12, 2018
Employees at a Pennsylvania carpentry framing company performed their work without fall or head protection, according to OSHA, which has cited Strong Construction, Inc. for two willful and five serious safety and health violations. The Bensalem company, which specializes in commercial and industrial construction, faces $213,318 in fines.
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Mine operators get warning about nonpayment of safety fines

March 9, 2018
Mine operators with safety violations have failed to pay millions of dollars they owe in penalties – a state of affairs David G. Zatezalo calls “unacceptable.” In a recent op-ed piece in The Intelligencer. Wheeling News-Register, Zatezalo said uncollected fines combined with continued violations “show disregard for the law and our nation’s miners.
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Study: Opioid prescriptions keep injured workers away from work longer

March 9, 2018
Longer-term prescribing of opioids causes substantially longer duration of temporary disability among workers with work-related low back injuries, according to a new study from the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI). Temporary disability is time that workers spend away from work recovering from their work-related injuries.
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