INJURY AND DEATHS OF WORKERS HIDDEN FROM PUBLIC_ A LACK OF DISCLOSURE

Below is a great story from researcher Celeste Monforton at Georgetown University relaying the facts surrounding a worker's death at her university and the difficulty of her finding adequate disclosure by OSHA.  Her story shows how difficult the government is making it for the public to understand the facts surrounding the numbers and the degree of injuries and deaths that workers face in America every day.  This type of secrecy and non-disclosure is used to protect industry from liability and regulations.  The public needs more transparancy and disclosure of work-related deaths, injuries and illnesses.  It is time to priotize protecting hard working Americans from injury and death.

http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/interpreting-oshas-on-line-data/

Interpreting OSHA’s on-line data


Last fall, Mr. Rosaulino Montano, 46, a worker on my campus at the George Washington University, died when he fell seven stories while installing windows on a new $75 million residence hall. Mr. Montano was an employee of Engineered Construction Products, and because his work-related death occurred at my place of employment, I was particularly interested in tracking the OSHA investigation until the case was closed. I wondered whether there was a “controlling employer,” such as a general contractor or even if my employer, GWU, and whether they had some responsibility for safety at the site.


Over the next few months, I used OSHA’s Establishment Search Page in an effort to monitor progress on the investigation, but consistently received the same unsatisfactory message: “Your Establishment search returned O results.”

Figuring that I was probably not using the search tool correctly, I spoke to a very helpful woman in Balt/DC OSHA Area Office. She informed me that if a case is still open, it will not appear in the publicly available database, even though the search tool allows you to select “Open” for the prompt “Case Status.” I chalked this up to a glitch in the system, and decided I would simply file a FOIA request at about OSHA’s 6-month statutory deadline for issuing citations and penalties.

I sent my FOIA request to OSHA’s Balt/DC Area Office, and they responded promptly, sending me a copy of the citation and notification of penalty for Engineered Construction Products. The firm received one serious violation for violating OSHA’s fall protection standard (1926.501(b)(1)) and a monetary penalty of $2,500. This was the only citation and penalty issued in relation to Mr. Rosaulino Montano, 46, fatal injury. No other employers, such as my employer George Washington University, was deemed responsible for ensuring safety at the site.

Now that the case is closed, when I use OSHA’s Establishment Search Page, I no longer get the “O results” message. Instead, I get a response that raises more questions than it answers. Here’s a screenshot, and note the message:

“This violation item has been deleted.”

What does OSHA mean the “violation item has been deleted”? I searched OSHA’s Field Operations Manual and didn’t find a single entry explaining how a violation is deleted. Can someone explain what this means, or better yet, can OSHA put a legend or explanatory text on this webpage to help us interpret this on-line data?

If you look at the screenshot, the page offers other data points that are not self-explanatory. For example:

•ViolType: Serious

If the “violation item has been deleted,” what is this serious violation?

What about these entries:

•NrInstances: 1

•NrExposed: 3

Is it correct to assume Nr means “number,” as in ”number of instances” and “number of exposed”? Here too, a little legend explaining these data points and why they are relevant would be helpful. For example, does “NrExposed:3″ mean that three workers on the site were also not provided with appropriate fall protection, as required by 1926.501(b)(1):

“Each employee on a walking/working surface (horizontal or vertical surface) with an unprotected side or edge which is g feet or more above a lower level must be protected from falling by the use of guardrail systems, safety net systems, or personal fall arrest systems.”

The data points “NrInstances:1″ and “NrExposed:3″ may mean something to those inside OSHA, but not to us on the outside.

Similarly, can someone fill me in on the meaning of: “REC: A”??

Finally, the screenshot shows a datapoint for “Gravity” with the notation:

•Gravity: 10

Because there is not legend for these entries, is it safe to assume that this value of “10″ refers to the IMIS codes listed on page 6-6 of OSHA’s Field Operations Manual. According to the table on page 6-6, a violation of “High Severity,” “Greater Probability” and “High Gravity” gets an IMIS Code of “10,” the highest possible code. That’s a troubling finding by OSHA, right?: a high severity, greater probability and high gravity violation. Sounds like something that should go on the company’s permanent records, ESPECIALLY since a worker lost his life in the situation.

So, back to my original question: looking at the screenshot for the citaitons and penalty associated with the investigation of Mr. Rosaulino Montano’s death, it looks like the company agreed to pay a $2,500 penalty in exchange for having the violation deleted? OSHA Underground, OSHA Above Ground, am I understanding that correctly?

Better yet, because not everyone is on one-on-one blogging terms with OSHA Underground and OSHA Above Ground, a simple solution would be explanatory legend for this OSHA’s Establishment data. It would really help the public interpret the data that OSHA makes available to us, and understand better how the agency’s enforcement system really works.

Laboratory Safety Lacking in California

One dead in chemical blast at Menlo Park firm

Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sept. 3, 2011
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/02/BAL21KVRFL.DTL&tsp=1


A body is brought out and another person injured after an explosion at 4:15pm atMenlo Science and Technology Park in Menlo Park, Ca., on Friday, September 2, 2011. Fire chief Harold Schapelhouman said that the explosion may have occured while transferring methane from one tank to another during an experiment.  (Photo by Liz Hafalia)

The explosion at Membrane Technology & Research Inc. at 1360 Willow Road was reported at 4:07 p.m. Firefighters evacuated 23 other employees from the company's building.  One other injured worker was sent by ambulance to the hospital with a shattered eardrum.

CONNECTICUT: DEADLY SAFETY PROBLEMS AT YALE

Safety Problems Haunt Connecticut

Yale University Senior, Michele Dufault, 22-year old died Wednesday April 6, 2011 in a lab accident after her hair got caught into a lathe while working alone. 

Safety protections for workers in Connecticut are weak.



Worker's Memorial Day, April 28th. 
State Capitol at noon
Injured Workers Unite

For more:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703983104576263463180296504.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_second

Biological Research Laboratories Can Cause Dangerous and Lethal Human Infections

Researchers must be wary of infections

By Blythe Bernhard / St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The death of a scientist who caught the plague in a laboratory in 2009 shook the disease research community. It was the first such death of a researcher, and 50 years since the last known lab-acquired case of plague.


For the more than 500,000 people who work in laboratories in the United States, occupational health hazards can include infectious diseases spread by live viruses and bacteria.

There’s no state or national tracking system for lab-acquired infections, but one estimate says three of every 1,000 lab workers become infected each year. The most common infections include hepatitis, typhoid fever and tuberculosis, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“We’ve always told people they need to follow safety (precautions) even if what they think they’re working with is benign,” said Susan Cook, a safety officer at Washington University, where scientists work with cultures, including flu, pneumonia, salmonella and E. coli. “You don’t necessarily know what the person next to you is working with all the time.”
......

Basic lab protection includes gloves, coats and eye goggles. Biological safety cabinets keep fumes away from researchers if they need to mix agents.

Still, infections occur when workers breathe in or touch spores.

A student worker at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign somehow contracted cowpox last year in a campus lab that stores the virus. The skin virus presented as an infected cut, according to university officials, and the student recovered.

While all lab workers are offered precautionary vaccines, the student had declined, a university spokeswoman said.

In 2008, a lab worker at a Virginia university contracted vaccinia, the live virus contained in smallpox vaccine. The man in his 20s worked in a cancer research lab with mice that were infected with vaccinia virus. He recovered fully from an infection in his eye and ear.

For complete story:  http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20110324/NEWS0107/103240320/

Injured Japanese Nuclear Workers

History of "Right to Know And What That Means Today for Biotech Workers" by Dan Berman

Daniel Berman On Pfizer Molecular Biologist Becky McClain Case

 http://blip.tv/file/3604696

Daniel Berman, author of "Death On The Job" talked about the case of injured Pfizer
molecular biologist Becky McClain on April 27, 2010 in Sacramento. McClain was
doing stem cell research and was contaminated as a result of the lack of proper
health and safety protection at the Groton CT. Pfizer laboratories.

WORKER SAFETY STUDY NOT COMPLETE_Public Apathetic Toward Worker Safety

A recent study entitled "Public Attitudes Towards and Experiences with Workplace Safety," indicates that an overwhelming percent of workers believe workplace safety is the most important issue among labor concerns.

Despite that fact, the study gave a grave picture of the public’s and the media’s response to workplace safety issues. Unless a disastrous event occurs, the study indicated that the public and media are not concerned with workplace safety issues. And even when a disaster strikes, the public often overlooks the injuries or fatalities to the workers.

The public and the media take workplace accidents for granted.  The public is apathetic toward workers and safety.  This is a major problem.

What this study did not address are the underlying reasons for the public’s apathy toward workplace safety and workplace accidents.

What the public fails to understand is that:

1. most major work industries are self-policing and go essentially unregulated.

2. the average worker lacks serious rights and protections to a safe work environment.

3. government agencies have intimate ties to industry which influences a lack of protections for worker safety.

4. the prevalence of unsafe work practices and consequential injuries and illness are severely under reported to government agencies, providing a false appearance that workplace safety is not a significant problem.

5. many injured workers are kicked to the curb by the employer, obtaining no medical care, no compensation and are forced to become dependent on public resources.

6. the public pays when the employer should.

7. unsafe work does not only harm workers but also can harm the public and their families too...sometimes causing harm to generations to come.

8. unsafe work conditions cost the taxpayers money…lots of money.

9. unsafe work conditions are unethical.

It would behoove the funding agencies of this study to provide more insight into the underlying reasons of why the public and the media are apathetic toward worker safety, when in fact, worker safety is important to the heath and well-being of the public.

Other references:  http://www.publicwelfare.org/NewsRoom/NewsDetails.aspx?newsid=79

"Workers Rate Safety Most Important Workplace Issue in New Labor Day Study"

Work-Related Death Statistics Remain Flawed

Deaths caused by work-acquired illness are hardly ever counted.  And the government and companies want to keep it that way.  This allows the government to falsely claim that workplace deaths have fallen to lowest level since 1992.  It makes them appear that they are protecting the public. It makes the companies look peachy clean.

Yet death from work related illness are significant. Illness acquired from work are constantly ignored or purposely covered up. 

Chemical exposure can cause respiratory problems, neurological illness, brain damage and cancer.  New emerging technologies such as genetically engineered infectious agents, synthetic biology and nanotechnology can also cause a variety of work-relatted illness.   They all can kill. Yet no accountability is seen in oversight or regulations to assess this large population of work-related illness causing deaths.  The majority are never counted.

Reports that indicate that workplace deaths are low need to be examined carefully.  Many of these reports are a way to hide inefficiencies in protecting workers, as well as, the public, as new dangerous technologies are created which can cause numerous illness and fatalities. Yet they continue to go unreported and undetected.

Below is one such report which does not provide statistics on any work-related acquired illness and fatalities.

Workplace deaths fall to lowest level since 1992
By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer – Thu Aug 19, 12:33 pm ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_workplace_deaths


WASHINGTON – The number of workers who died on the job fell by 17 percent last year to the lowest level in nearly two decades, as workers logged fewer hours during the recession, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The 4,340 workplace fatalities recorded in 2009 was the smallest total since the Bureau of Labor Statistics first began tracking the data in 1992. It's the second straight year that fatal work injuries have reached a historic low, following a 10 percent drop in 2008.

High unemployment and layoffs in more dangerous industries like construction played a major role in the decrease, the agency said. The construction unemployment rate is 17.3 percent, nearly double the overall jobless rate of 9.5 percent.

Workers on average logged 6 percent fewer hours last year than in 2008. Employees in construction worked 17 percent fewer hours in 2009 than the previous year.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis called the decrease encouraging and pledged to continue her agency's stepped-up enforcement of workplace safety laws.

"As the economy regains strength and more people re-enter the work force, the Department of Labor will remain vigilant to ensure America's workers are kept safe while they earn a paycheck," Solis said.

Workplace suicides declined by 10 percent to 237 after reaching a historic high in 2008. But that count is still the second-highest total recorded since the agency began tracking workplace deaths.

For the second straight year, commercial fishing was the deadliest occupation in the country, with a fatality rate about 60 times higher than the average rate for all workers.

One of the few sectors where the fatality rate increased was in building and grounds maintenance, where the number of deaths rose 6 percent.

The report is based on preliminary numbers. A final report is scheduled to be released next year.

In other findings:

_Transportation incidents, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of all work fatalities last year, fell 21 percent from 2008.

_Fatalities among black workers declined 24 percent. Black employees also saw a larger decline in the number of hours worked than white or Hispanic workers.

_Workplace homicides declined 1 percent to 521 cases. That is nearly half the all-time high of 1,080 homicides recorded in 1994.

BIOTECH INDUSTRY DENIES INJURED WORKERS RIGHTS_SANDI TREND SPEAKS

Sandi Trend, human rights and public health and safety activist speaks out about the injustices and coverup within the biotech industry against biotech workers.

Her son, David Bell was exposed to harmful biological agents while working at Agraquesta, a biotech company.  Bell immediately became seriously ill and has been denied directed medical care for his work-related exposures. 

Trend spells out some of the problems and fraud that workers face when trying to obtain medical care from dangerous biological exposures at biotech companies.  She emphasizes the lack of workers rights in this industry and the dangers of working in the industry.

See her talk here at the National Conference on Biotechnology, Health and Safety, Labor and the Public:  http://blip.tv/file/3924484

Nanotechnology Professor Found Dead in the Laboratory

A prominent professor of nanotechnology and synthetic biology, Dr. Franco Cerrina, was found dead in his Boston University laboratory early in the morning of July 12, 2010. Dr. Cerrina’s work focused on nanotechnology, synthetic biology, lithography and biotechnology. Was his work dangerous? You bet it was.

What is nanotechnology? Why is it dangerous? Let’s review a bit….

Nanotechnology is still in its infancy. It is a science where scientists intend to build molecular structures one molecule at a time…from the bottom up…so to speak. It is an interdisciplinary science of the physical sciences, life sciences, computer informatics and engineering sciences. Nanotechnology is also part of synthetic biology where scientists intend to create synthetic life forms by designing and creating nano-biological machines and components and placing them inside cells.

Nanotechnology engages in building molecular structures and creating new materials at the nanometer level.

That size is very small. Building structures that are nanometers in size is comparable to 1 million times smaller than the head of a pin or about 2500 times smaller than a red blood cell. The size of a nanometer is about the size of the diameter of a DNA molecule.

The smallness of these nanoparticles makes them both beneficial and dangerous. Their potential benefit is in the ability to use this technology for medical and health sciences with potential to diagnose and cure disease. Nanotechnology also can be used in consumer goods making materials stronger and lighter or having other useful properties. They are already being used in clothing, paint, makeup and sunscreen. They are also being used in semi-conductor research with hopes of making electronics and computers better and faster.

The dangers of nanotechnology lie in the fact that nanoparticles can also unpredictably react with human life, other life and the environment causing harm…serious harm.

Nano- materials behave differently because they are so small compared to a larger or macro scale. They are under the influence of different physical forces…more toward quantum mechanics than gravity. This gives nano-particles different chemical and physical properties. Therefore, nanomaterials are more reactive and more bioactive. They can be toxic and cause cancer. They could be passed from mother to fetus. Nano-particles can exhibit other properties too. For example, copper loses its opaqueness and becomes transparent when produced on a nanoscale. Aluminum, stable at the macro level, becomes combustible when produced as a nano-particle.

Nanoparticles cause risk to humans since their size allows them to more easily cross the skin, lung or blood brain barrier.

Despite these obvious threats, scant research is being invested into nanotech health issues. The little research done has caused alarm. Fish exposed to nanoparticles have been found to have extensive brain damage. Nanoparticles have been found to accumulate in the bodies of lab animals which makes a link to possible food chain accumulation if nanoparticles are released into the environment. Nanoparticles called quantum dots can cause cadium poisoning in humans. Nano-particles have been found in the brain and lung tissues of rats exposed to nano-particles and subsequently caused inflammation and biochemical stress responses.

More concerning is that nanoparticles, because of their small size, could enter into the environment or life forms without detection.

Nanotechnology is big business. The government is funding it at $1.5 Billion per year and industry is adding another $8 Billion per year. There are about 1650 nanotechnology companies world wide with the majority located within the U.S.

Powerful economic forces and competition in the marketplace are taking precedence over safeguards when it comes to protecting workers and the public against the possible dangers of nanotechnology. This is causing some scientists and public to become concerned.

Dr. Franco Cerrina found dead within the laboratory raises questions regarding the cause of his death. Was it due to a work-related illness? It is very possible…but we most likely will never find out.

Dead Bodies Pile Up

On average 14 workers die a day from work-related injuries.

And the dead bodies pile up ...every day.

These piles of dead workers go unnoticed by the public because these fatalities usually occur one at a time...fourteen times a day.

What shocks us is that these 14 deaths a day are mostly preventable.

But that does not matter. Political power keeps labor on its knees. Industry gloats with hubris and disregard for safety. Laws become weaker and weaker. For example, the median penalty for a company that kills an employee out of negligence is only $3,675. Not a big deterrent for anyone.

Thus, 14 men and woman die needlessly every day…and the next day ..and the next. And the dead bodies pile up. And the public doesn’t get it…until it hits home…with a lost family member.

A big problem lies with OSHA. Pulled by political agend, OSHA has been castrated, toothless legally.

OSHA has no real authority to keep workers safe or safeguard them against retaliation for raising safety issues...as 14 workers continue to die, piling up by one... by one...by one..by one...by one...by one...by one...by one...by one...by one...by one...by one...by one...by one each day.

An article by Tom O’ Connor offers some suggestions to strengthen OSHA’s position. He makes a solid point, that in the end, it all is political.

And, that is the battle we face...
politics….
as the dead bodies of workers pile up.


Read O’Connors’ article entitled “The Workplace Kills 14 Per Day—One By One"
http://www.labornotes.org/2010/06/behind-headlines-workplace-kills-14-day-one-one

Geneticist Dies from Work-related Plague

University of Chicago geneticist may have died of an infection linked to the plague
09/21/2009
Erin Podolak

Malcolm Casadaban was researching the genetics of harmful bacteria, including a weakened strain of the bacteria that causes the plague, when he became infected.
On Sept. 13, University of Chicago geneticist Malcolm Casadaban died from an infection which has been attributed to a weakened laboratory strain of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the plague. Sixty- year-old Casadaban was working with Y. pestis, and other unspecified bacteria, for a genetic study.
According to a statement from the University of Chicago Medical Center, the laboratory strain of Y. pestis was found in blood samples taken from Casadaban after he was admitted to the Medical Center’s Bernard Mitchell Hospital. The finding suggests the possibility that Casadaban died from a form of infection known as septicemic plague, which can lead to death before any other physical symptoms of the disease develop.
Kenneth Alexander, chief of pediatric infectious disease at the medical center, described the case as a mystery. In a statement from the medical center, Alexander said that the bacterium is not typically fatal. The laboratory strain is engineered to lack the key proteins that cause it to be harmful to humans. The strain is considered so safe that it has even been used in some countries as a live-attenuated vaccine against the disease. The strain is approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for routine laboratory use.
The infection control team at the medical center is working with the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), the Illinois Department of Public Health, and the CDC to investigate Casadaban’s death. According to the Medical Center, no other illnesses related to the case have been reported.
Officials are looking into the possibility that an underlying medical condition may have contributed to Casadaban’s death. However, the medical center has reported that the initial autopsy indicated no obvious cause of death except for the presence of the bacteria in blood cultures. According to the medical center, conditions like high levels of iron in the blood can increase susceptibility to infection.
Though the strain is not known to be deadly, officials are taking all precautions. Casadaban’s lab has been sealed off in accordance with the investigation, and on Sept. 18, the medical center began notifying family, friends, colleagues, and health care personnel who had contact with Casadaban prior to his death. "While the death of this individual researcher is terrible and tragic, there is currently no indication that his case of illness spread to anyone else," the CDPH said in a statement.
Symptoms of the plague usually develop within 2-10 days of exposure. The University has reported that none of those who had contact with Casadaban have reported any illness. The typical treatment for the disease is a course of antibiotics.
Casadaban held degrees from Harvard, Stanford, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was also a member of the University of Chicago’s Institutional Biosafety Committee, which regulates research protocols for the use of biohazardous substances.
A memorial for Casadaban was held at the University on Sept. 16. A funeral service is planned for November. “This death is a tragic loss to our community,” James L. Madara, dean of the Biological Sciences Division and Pritzker School of Medicine, and CEO of the Medical Center, said in a statement. “We are all saddened to lose a valued colleague.” Those wishing to make donations have been asked to contribute to the American Diabetes Research Association.
The plague appears in three forms, septicemic, pneumonic, and bubonic. The bubonic plague infects the lymph nodes and is infamous for the outbreak in Europe in the 1300s. Pneumonic plague infects the lungs. Septicemic plague is an infection of the blood. It is the rarest of the three forms, but considered the most lethal.
Infection due to the modified strain of Y. pestis is so rare that data regarding infection rate is unavailable. In the United States about 20 cases of plague are reported each year due to unmodified strains of Y. pestis. Plague remains a significant problem in developing countries where up to 3,000 cases are reported yearly.

Source: BioTechniques.com

DEAD SCIENTISTS

VERY Bizarre link to "DEAD SCIENTISTS DO TELL TALES":

http://www.stevequayle.com/dead.scientist.news.html

Here is an chronological list of dead scientists: http://www.stevequayle.com/dead_scientists/UpdatedDeadScientists.html

Reporting of Workplace Injuries

OSHA relies solely on employers to report injury and illness to provide the government and the public a measure of the seriousness of the safety related problems in the workplace. Since there is no incentives for companies to follow reporting practices, workplace injuries and illness are often under reported. Below is a news story from NYTimes by Steven Greenhouse describing the problem.

November 17, 2009
Work-Related Injuries Underreported
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Employers and workers routinely underreport work-related injuries and illnesses, calling into question the accuracy of nationwide data that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration compiles each year, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.
The report, by the G.A.O., the auditing arm of Congress, said many employers did not report workplace injuries and illnesses for fear of increasing their workers’ compensation costs or hurting their chances of winning contracts.
The report also said workers did not report job-related injuries because they feared being fired or disciplined and worried that their co-workers might lose rewards, like bonuses or steak dinners, as part of safety-based incentive programs.
“The widespread underreporting so clearly documented in this report is undermining the health and safety of American workers,” said Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “If we don’t know the full extent of the workplace hazards workers face, we cannot fully address these risks.”
Mr. Harkin was one of the Congressional leaders who requested the report.
In response to the report, which examined OSHA’s audits from 2005 to 2007, the safety administration said it would adopt the accountability office’s recommendations, which include requiring inspectors to interview employees during all audits to check the accuracy of employer-provided injury data.
The accountability office noted that the rate of workplace injuries — there were 4 million in 2007, including 5,600 fatalities — has declined fairly steadily since 1992, which OSHA attributed to improvements in workplace safety and the decline in the number of manufacturing jobs.
But the G.A.O. report cited several academic studies that found that OSHA data failed to include up to two-thirds of all workplace injuries and illnesses.
The report noted that because of OSHA’s “sole reliance on employer-reported injury and illness data” in one of its major surveys, “some academic studies have reported that the survey may undercount the total number of workplace injuries and illnesses.”
The accountability office also found that more than a third of the occupational health practitioners it surveyed said that employers or workers had pressured them to provide insufficient medical treatment to hide or play down work-related injuries or illnesses.
The safety and health administration requires employers with more than 10 workers to record every work-related injury or illness that results in lost work time or medical treatment other than first aid. Some occupational health practitioners say that to avoid recording an injury, some employers will try to limit treatment for a serious injury to just first aid.
In other cases, the practitioners said, employers might seek alternative diagnoses if the initial diagnosis would result in a recordable injury or illness.
One manager took an injured worker to several medical providers until the manager found one who would certify that treatment required only first aid, thus making it an injury that did not have to be recorded, one practitioner told researchers, according to the report. Many employers fear that reporting numerous injuries will prompt a full-scale OSHA inspection.
The accountability office said that 53 percent of health practitioners had reported experiencing pressure from company officials to play down injuries or illnesses, and that 47 percent had reported experiencing this pressure from workers.
“This report confirms that when it comes to the documenting of workplace injuries, we can’t just take employers at their word,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington and chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety. “The system, to this point, has been all too easy to game.”
According to the G.A.O. report, 67 percent of the 1,187 occupational health practitioners surveyed had reported observing worker fear of disciplinary action for reporting an injury or illness, and 46 percent said this fear had some impact on the accuracy of employers’ injury and illness records.
One reason workers fail to report injuries, the report said, was that their employers required drug testing after incidents resulting in reported injuries or illnesses, regardless of any evidence of drug use.
The report also questioned employers’ safety incentive programs, which reward workers when their worksites have few recordable injuries or illnesses.
While these programs can promote safe behavior, the report said three-quarters of health practitioners said they believed that workers sometimes avoided reporting work-related injuries and illnesses as a result of these programs because they feared that doing so would cause them or their co-workers to miss the chance of winning prizes.
Correction: November 16, 2009
A previous version of this article gave an incorrect name for the Government Accountability Office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/us/17osha.html?_r=1

Biotech Health Risks Cause Concern

An article in Harzards Magazine V427 October 10, 2009 voices concerns over biotech safety in the USA. See story below:

USA: Biotech health risks cause concern
The mother of a worker who believes his health was ruined as a result of working in California's cutting edge biotech industry has expressed her anger at the refusal by the firm's health insurers to pay his medical bills. Sandi Trend's son, David Bell, was sickened at the Davis based company AgraQuest. She says the firm's owner, Pam Marrone, and its health insurer Liberty Mutual have refused to provide his healthcare despite evidence that he had the genetically engineered products in his body. She says these products have wrecked her son's immune system. The campaigning mother has also accused the California Fraud Assessment Commission of failing to bring fraud charges against the firm. She alleged the watchdog and district attorneys care more for wealthy companies in the state than for sick workers. David Bell says the lack of proper health and safety protection at AgraQuest led to his contamination and sickness. He also alleges the company sought to cover-up their responsibility for his illness. A US poll published last week found 90 per cent of Americans think that the public should be better informed about the development of cutting-edge technologies including synthetic biology. Two-thirds of the respondents supported regulation of this emerging technology. 'Regardless of their awareness of synthetic biology, or where they come down on the risk-benefit tradeoff, a strong majority of adults think this research should be regulated by the federal government,' said Geoff Garin, president of Peter D Hart Research, the organisation that conducted the poll.
Blip TV - labor Video Project. Biotechnology Awareness webpages on David Bell. PEN news item.

http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-17069-f0.cfm#tuc-17069-22

California Dina Padilla Runs for Insurance Commissioner, Claiming Fraud Is Used Against Injured Workers

Dina Padilla is an advocate for injured workers to obtain medical care. Dina is running for insurance commissioner to combat against the fraud which pointingly deny worker's their right to healthcare. She is a voice for the people and a voice for justice. Watch her video here!

Building A CASE Against an Injured Worker

Injured Workers Denied Access to Decent Medical Care

Here is an interesting article from Dr. Ron Kienitz outlining the difficulties of injured workers in Hawaii to obtain medical care. The only issue missing in his article is that this is a problem in all states. Read the article below:

Injured workers need access to medical care

By Ron Kienitz

LAST Thursday was just about the last straw for me. Since our clinic is one of the few remaining that specializes in treating injured workers, we see work injuries on a daily basis. (We're owned by a chain of 300 such clinics throughout the country.) But an injured worker's good fortune in finding someone competent willing to treat them doesn't always end there. What happens when I need a specialist to take care of an emergency beyond my expertise?

Thursday, a welder came in for care of an ear injury. He'd been welding while lying on his side when a drop of molten metal slag fell into his ear canal, burned through his ear drum and lodged in the middle ear by the sensitive organs of hearing. Is the public aware that there is not an ear/nose/throat specialist on Oahu who is willing to take a workers compensation case? Trust me; we called. Imagine my frustration as I tried in vain to find a specialist to save this patient's hearing. And this was not an isolated incident. Try to find a neurosurgeon to consult on these cases, or a psychiatrist, or whatever specialty.

I am one of very few doctors remaining in Hawaii who will treat an injured worker. Then again, since my board certification is in occupational medicine, I pretty much have to. Does the public know what's going on here? Does anyone care that if they are injured at work or in a car accident, the chances are their own family doctor will refuse to treat them? The root cause for this is the poorly thought out action taken by legislators in 1995 when they slashed reimbursements by more than 54 percent to doctors treating workers compensation injuries. Then they tagged it to Medicare, which has further decreased reimbursements to doctors ever since. This same fee schedule is used for car accident injuries.

What with the sometimes outrageous administrative hassles that go along with taking these cases, more than two-thirds of Hawaii's doctors have gradually refused to take it anymore, and many more are on the verge of dropping out. Does the public know that the entire Straub Medical system now refuses to care for these cases? If your doctor is in the Straub system and you're injured at work, you're on your own to find treatment.

THE ORIGINAL reason for this legislative misadventure was to save money. As the workers compensation committee chairman for Hawaii Medical Society, I testified repeatedly and did my best to educate our legislators with data and research proving that it wouldn't work. We warned them that if you pay doctors so little that they lose money on each patient, the result will be delays in access to care, delays in treatment, longer overall case lengths, increased temporary indemnity costs and increased permanent injuries. All of this rapidly eats up the small savings they hoped to realize from pursuing their ignorant agenda. As a result, Hawaii now boasts the third-highest workers compensation costs in the nation!

It was no surprise to the Hawaii Medical Association as costs per case steadily rose in spite of this draconian approach. What is surprising is that despite repeatedly going back to the Legislature asking that they correct their mistake, they have been absolutely intransigent to do so in spite of this clear and undeniable trend. Beyond gross economics, their action and their continued momentum-driven obstinacy has resulted in a tragic human costs, as well. We're talking about Hawaii's vibrant working men and women here. How many have become needlessly disabled because of impeded access to timely and competent care?

HMA and the Hawaii Occupational Medical Society continue with our efforts to rectify this situation so that Hawaii's injured workers receive timely, competent care. What's more, when they get it, the overall costs actually go down, not up. We will continue to try to get the Legislature to wake up to this fact and do something about it. Until they do, Hawaii's workers will continue to suffer the results of their lack of concern. In the meantime, if you or anyone you know has had a problem with finding a doctor to care for your work or no-fault injury, please speak up. Call, write, or e-mail your representative and senator and tell them to correct this mistake.

Ron Kienitz, DO, is chairman of the Hawaii Medical Association workers compensation committee, president of the Hawaii Occupational Medical Association and medical director of Concentra Medical Centers.

ref: http://archives.starbulletin.com/2005/12/06/editorial/commentary.html

Workers Memorial Day Press Conference in San Francisco Honors Dr. Jeannette Adu-Bobie

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 is International Worker’s Memorial Day, a day to honor workers who have been killed, disabled or injured. This year, the California Coalition for Workers Memorial Day (CCWMD) will focus on the need for health and safety protections, regulations and standards for new industries such as biotechnology and nanotechnology.

This Tuesday, April 28th, 2009, Becky McClain, biotechnologist, will honor Dr. Jeannette Adu-Bobie at the San Francisco Worker's Memorial Day press conference at 3pm at 455 Mission Bay Boulevard South at 3rd St., San Francisco. Dr. Adu-Bobie’s struggle illustrates the difficulties injured biotech workers face.

In 2005 Dr. Adu-Bobie, a British scientist, who specializes in meningococcal bacteria research, lost her legs, left arm and right digits after contracting a meningococcal infection while working in a New Zealand vaccine lab. The vaccine lab strain was identical to the strain that had infected Dr. Adu-Bobie. Unbelievably, officials still denied her injuries originated from her workplace. It took three years of legal struggle, before experts finally admitted that her injury was caused by her work. In the end she only received $117,000 for damages. Her story highlights the realities and struggles that injured biotech workers face. She has been courageous enough to break the silence about dangerous work conditions in biotech laboratories. Dr. Adu-Bobie questioned safety procedures when she saw Neisseria meningitidis being plated out on an open bench and subsequently, but mysteriously, came down with the life threatening and disabling infection. We honor Dr. Adu-Bobie’s fortitude and courage.

Press release: http://www.workersmemorialday.org/documents/WMD%2009-SF%20flyer.pdf
See VIDEO: http://tvnz.co.nz/view/video_popup_windows_skin/1983298
Article: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/562741

On Worker's Deaths

By Patrice Woeppel, Ed.D.

Author: Depraved Indifference: the Workers’ Compensation System

March 16, 2009

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) records 5,488 worker fatalities for 2007, the most recent year for which their data is completed. But the number of worker fatalities recorded by BLS is grossly under-reported.

Worker deaths from toxic exposures, other work illnesses are conservatively estimated by NIOSH and other researchers at 50,00 to 60,000 deaths each year, or ten times the number of fatalities from work injuries. 1, 2, 3. It is a disaster of monumental proportions that goes largely unrecorded. The United States has no comprehensive occupational health data collection system.

As we have lagged behind other nations in our lack of a national comprehensive medical and statistical database on occupational illnesses, occupational injuries; we have lagged behind in the research into the causes and consequences of occupational illnesses that would lead to improved diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and ultimately prevention, of occupational toxic exposures and resultant diseases.

While the United States has set permissible exposure limits on less than 500 of the hundreds of thousands of chemicals in use in workplaces throughout our country, the EU regulates 30,000 chemicals utilized in their workplaces, and many that we allow here have been banned for years in the EU.4 Even the small number of chemicals, upon which exposure limits have been set in the US, are grossly out of date based on more recent scientific data.

It is a major and costly health issue – costly in lives, and costly in dollars. The economic burden for occupational illness, injury and death in our country is an estimated $170 billion annually. It is an economic burden that falls mainly on families (44%) and on taxpayers (18%); with only 27%, on average, being paid by workers’ compensation. 5.

There has been very little general public awareness of this system that maims and kills with impunity. The time is long overdue to re-evaluate a structure that evolved over one hundred years ago; and which clearly doesn't meet the needs of seriously injured, ill, or toxic chemical-exposed workers, or the families of workers who died from their work – a system that has fostered devastating and lasting damage to families, to communities, to our environment.

Increasingly as a nation, we have been all too willing to push corporate costs onto workers and taxpayers; and all too willing to cut protections for workers, communities, and the environment. Occupational illness deaths are now the eighth leading cause of death in the US, more than many of the diseases that receive far more government, public, and media attention. 6 We need to right this terrible, continuing American tragedy.

References

1 Leigh, J. Paul; Markowitz, Steven; Fahs, Marianne; Landrigan, Philip. Costs of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. University of Michigan Press, 2000.
2 U.S. House of Representatives. Hidden Tragedy: Underreporting of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses. A Majority Staff Report by the Committee on Education and Labor. Honorable George Miller, Chairman, June 2008.
3 Steenland, Kyle; Burnett, Carol; Lalich, Nina; et al.Dying for Work: The Magnitude of US Mortality From Selected Causes of Death Associated With Occupation, American Journal of Industrial Medicine, Vol 43, pp 461-482, 2003.
4 Regulation EC 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), http://eur-lex.europa.eu/.
5 op. cit. Leigh, et al, 2000.
6 LaDou, J., M.D. Occupational and Environmental Medicine in the United State: A Proposal to Abolish Workers’ Compensation and Reestablish the Public Health Model,International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in the United States. 2006; 12 (2) 154-168; and US Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Vital Statistics System, National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol 53, Number 5. Deaths: Final Data for 2002, Table 10 and Worktable I, pp. 1585, 1634, 1662, 1703, 2220-2224, athttp://cdc.gov/hchs/data/dvs/mortfinal2002_workipt2.pdf