Jared Rhoads has posted a fresh Health Wonk Review at The Lucidicus Project. There are many interesting posts running the gamut: healthcare reform, home birth, hospice, hypertension and a variety of other topics that the health bloggers found noteworthy in the last two weeks.
Other news notes
Bad Manager of the Month Club – Scott Polston, an employee of Foster Farms Dairy in California, suddenly began getting a series bizarre phone calls and dozens of strangers coming to his home with unusual requests. The callers and visitors were responding to bogus ads that had been placed on craigslist, ads that were subsequently traced back to his supervisor, Michael Odell Simpson. At the time of this report, Simpson was no longer employed by the Dairy and was facing criminal complaints. Polston filed a worker’s compensation claim over stress.
Experts Detail Perils To Comp Insurers – “Unconventional threats to the workers’ compensation system, ranging from Medicare system red tape to recession problems to employers liability difficulties,” – these are all perils for employers and threats to the doctrine of exclusive remedy discussed by panelists at the recent at the Workers Compensation Educational Conference presented by the Florida Workers’ Compensation Institute in partnership with The National Underwriter Company.
Survey: Consumers Would Support TWD Ban – In light of our recent posts on texting while driving this week, we were interested to learn that a recent Harris Interactive survey revealed that 80% of Americans favor a ban on texting while driving, while two thirds favor a ban on cell phone calls, and more than half say they would support a ban on cell phone use altogether.
Labor Day – As the Industrial Revolution took hold of the nation, the average American in the late 1800s worked 12-hour days, seven days a week in order to make a basic living. Children were also working, as they provided cheap labor to employers and laws against child labor were not strongly enforced. With the long hours and terrible working conditions, American unions became more prominent and voiced their demands for a better way of life. On Tuesday September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers marched from city hall to Union Square in New York City, holding the first-ever Labor Day parade. – More at Labor Day History.
Workplace safety – We started the week with a texting-while-driving shock video that has been making the rounds on the Web. Today, we found a more uplifting video highlighting the importance of workplace safety from the Washington Department State Department of Labor & Industries: