Falls in Construction – Reroofing
In Spanish: Caidas en la Construccion/Reparacion del Techo
Sprains and Strains in Construction/Pulling Cables
In Spanish: Torceduras y Desgarres en la Construccion/Tendido de Cables
Struck-by Accidents in Construction/Swinging Cranes
In Spanish: Golpes Causados por Accidentes en Construccion/Gruas en Movimiento
Posts Tagged ‘cranes’
Cool Tools: OSHA safety videos for construction
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012Cavalcade of Risk #100 (!) and other news of note
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010Is the 100th time the charm? Cavalcade of Risk celebrates its centesimal issue today – that’s a lot of risk coverage! Our host for this landmark issue is Russell Hutchinson of moneyblog – tip of the hat to him for a good issue. And kudos to Cavalcade founder and visionary, Hank Stern of InsureBlog.
Chronic Pain – a few weeks ago, we brought you one approach to chronic pain management. In Risk and Insurance, Peter Rousmaniere discusses the CT Workers’ Compensation Trust approach to chronic pain. This self-insurance pool of 390 healthcare employers introduced a a five-pronged program in 2009, which Rousmaniere outlines. He challenges readers to “consider how many of the five you or your vendors apply.”
Uncovered in Georgia – a loophole left 88 injured workers without workers’ comp coverage on the recent failure of Atlanta-based workers’ compensation insurer Southeastern U.S. Insurance (SEUS) Inc. Normally, the state’s insolvency pool would serve as a safety net for failed insurers, but up until a law change in 2008, captive insurers were not covered by this pool. While SEUS had converted from captive to become a traditional insurer, 88 workers claims predated the conversion and are responsible for their According to the article, “Eight of those workers have catastrophic injuries and will need lifetime care. One has medical needs exceeding $45,000 a month.”
“Twelve other firms that operated under rules that exempted the failed company’s clients from drawing from an insolvency pool still do business in the state. And while they all now pay into that pool, 10 have claims predating the 2008 change in the law that required them to do so.
If any fail, workers with active pre-2008 claims could find themselves in a similar bind. State insurance regulators say they don’t know how many people ultimately could fall in that category. But they say they don’t think any of the 12 companies is in danger of failing.”
Mad as a hatter – On the recent release of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, the CDC reminds us that the phrase “mad as a hatter” originated from on-the-job mercury poisoning. To shape felt hats, hat makers used a solution of mercuric nitrate and, as a result, often suffered from agitation, tremors, slurred speech and other neurological symptoms – thus, “mad as a hatter.” Hat manufacturers used mercury until 1941. Mercury is still used in many industries and the CDC article has some interesting statistics, as well as a page devoted to recommendations, reports, and other resources for preventing hazardous exposures to mercury on the job.
Fatal Injury mapping – via Occupational Health & Safety, we learn that OSHA has introduced a new fatal injury mapping module, which “…allows users to create customized, color-coded maps of injury-related death rates throughout the United States. It defines injury-related deaths according to intent (e.g., unintentional, homicide, suicide) and mechanism of injury (e.g., motor-vehicle traffic, fall, fire or burn, poisoning, cut).” CDC’s Fatal Injury Mapping Module. Other data and statistics are also available from CDC’s WISQARSTM (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System), an interactive database system that provides customized reports of injury-related data.
NY crane deaths followup – Liz Borowski of The Pump Handle offers and update on the 2008 crane NY crane disasters. The owner of the city’s largest construction crane company is expected to be indicted for manslaughter in the death of two workers in one of the incidents. She also updates status on OSHA’s crane & derrick rule.
Legislator, heal thyself – More than 70% of congressional offices violate OSHA safety standards – but the good news is that violations have dropped. “The number of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations found in each office has significantly decreased over the years as well — from an average of about 8.15 violations per office in 2007 to an average of 1.75 hazards in each office this year.” (via Advanced Safety and Health)
March is workplace eye wellness month – Reliable Plant offers some tips on eye and face protection. Other resources: OSHA Eye and Face Protection; NIOSH: Eye Safety; National Safety Council: Protecting Your Eyes from Injury; Healthy Vision 2010: Occupational Eye Injuries
Briefs
- HR Web Cafe: Alabama and Indiana lawmakers OK “guns at work”
- Roberto Ceniceros of Comp Time updates and comments on legislative reform efforts in Oklahoma and South Carolina
- Consumer Insurance Blog looks at risky movies
- Emily Holbrook of Risk Management Monitor posts about risk management lessons from the Olympics
Cavalcade of Risk, plumbers, illegal immigrants, cranes, contractors, and more
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008Cavalcade of Risk #63:The WABAC edition hosted by John Cogan at Regulating Health Insurance. John is the Executive Counsel-Executive Assistant for Policy and Program Review for the Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner. He’s a first time host of Cavalcade so you might kick the tires at his blog after catching up on the news.
One of this week’s posts we found noteworthy is from Louise at Colorado Health Insurance Insider entitled Business 101 For Joe the Plumber, in which she analyzes how Joe’s business would fare under the Obama and the McCain tax health care reform plans.
In other news:
Illegal immigrants and workers comp – Peter Rousmaniere posts about a new analysis of workers comp laws and illegal workers recently issued by the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers. His post summarizes some of the key issues in the report but the bottom line is that 38 states offer at least some type of benefits to illegal aliens. The report is available in chart form (PDF) from WorkCompCentral.
High comp costs for defense-based contractors – The Pentagon is looking to curtail workers compensation costs for overseas defense-based contractors. Costs went from $7.6 million on 430 claims in 2002 to $170 million on 11,887 claims in 2007, according to the Congressional Research Service, with the Defense Department accounting for 90% of those costs. One of the ways that they are looking to cut costs is to consolidate to a single insurer.
Van pool risks – Nick Whitfield of Workforce looks at the risks involved with company-sponsored van pools. In response to skyrocketing gas prices, many employers adopted measures to help defray their employees’ costs of commuting, with van pools being one of the options. A van pool can have potential workers comp exposure depending on the way the pool is established. While injuries sustained during a commute would not normally be compensable under workers compensation laws, many state laws treat employer-sponsored transportation differently so injuries sustained in a commute might indeed be compensable. Many employers turn to third party contractors to run van pools and while this would generally mitigate the risk, experts suggest that employers who sponsor programs first consult with their broker, insurer and state workers’ comp authority.
OSHA and cranes safety – Celeste Monforton of The Pump Handle looks at the OSHA proposed rule on crane safety, which was published in the Federal Register on Oct 9 and will be in public comment phase until December 8. She notes that, curiously, the estimated 55 lives saved annually with the improved standard is not mentioned in the proposal.
Health & safety blogs – The Pump Handle referred to above does a great job covering health and safety issues in the workplace. We’d like to do a shout-out to a few other blogs that are on the health and safety case: long-time blogger rawblogXport; Tammy Miser at Weekly Toll; the vigilant folks at OSHA Underground; GotSafety Blog and The Safety Blog.
Health Wonk Review, help for paraplegics, crane safety, PBM shakeups and more
Thursday, July 24th, 2008Health Wonk Review – David Williams has a snappy new edition of Health Wonk Review posted over at Health Business Blog. Because HWR took a little summer hiatus last week, this issue is packed – and it’s all organized in a great format that allows for quick and easy scanning. David’s witty summaries are fun – check it out, it’s a good edition.
Cool development in assistive technology for paraplegics – Radi Kioff is a 40-year-old Israeli who spent the last 20 years in a wheelchair after being shot in the back while serving in the Israel Defense Forces. The video in this post shows him walking and climbing stairs with the help of a light wearable brace called ReWalk, a system designed to help paraplegics regain mobility. The system is undergoing clinical trials in Israel and scheduled to begin US trials in November. It’s great to see such a promising development for those who have suffered spinal chord injuries. (Thanks to Medgadget for the pointer.)
Crane fatalities – rawblogXport points us to the story of an eyewitness account from one of the workers who escaped in last week’s LyondellBasell’s crane collapse that killed 4 workers and injured 7. The article’s sidebar recounts the number of crane accidents so far this year. Celeste Monforton posts more on this and other crane fatalities at The Pump Handle.
PBM shakeup – Joe Paduda has the skinny on PMSI’s recent sale to investment firm HIG. Find more detail in his post PMSI sale – the numbers.
Disgruntled claimant on trial for murder – When you’ve worked in insurance for awhile, you know that a lot of anger and tension can surface around money matters, even more so when things reach a litigation stage. And many a claims manager can cite a litany of stories about angry calls or threats from disgruntled claimants who feel they’d had a raw deal. A story from California today reports on the trial of a claimant who shot and killed his own attorney two years ago. Angus McIntyre was very angry at his workers compensation settlement. He had reportedly threatened and harassed his claims adjuster in e-mails and voice mails on numerous occasions and apparently also held his attorney responsible. One evening he walked into that attorneys office and shot him in the head. Terrible story, and a sad reminder that violent threats must never be taken lightly.
Provider jailed for fraud – It’s 12 months jail time for a New York social worker who double-billed insurance companies to the tune of $102,000 for health care services. A health care provider may bill two insurance companies for the same treatment, but is obligate to disclose the double billing and cannot keep amount beyond 100 percent of the cost of the service. The conviction is not surprising, but I can’t recall too many insurance fraud cases that result in jail time. It’s also a reminder that fraud comes in many flavors – it is not synonymous with “employee.”
Fall protection – Brooks Schuelke posts an overview of fall protection systems at InjuryBoard.com. Falls are one of the most common source of injury and death in construction work. (Related: our prior post on human fall traps)