Posts Tagged ‘popcorn lung’

Health Wonk Review and other workers comp news notes

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Joe Paduda is the man of the moment. His Managed Care Matters blog is worth a regular perusal for the informed commentary he offers about the medical side of workers comp. Today, there’s twice as much reason to visit because he’s the host of this week’s Health Wonk Review, in which the focus is on implementing health care reform. Check out this biweekly best of the health policy blogosphere!
Violence on the job – This week, The Hartford Courant posts that the total work comp payout for the shooting at Hartford Distributors could set a record. The company’s workers’ compensation insurer is The Hanover Insurance Group. Reporter Matthew Sturdevant notes that families of deceased and injured workers have one year from the Aug. 3 shooting to file workers’ compensation claims and discusses state benefit levels. (See our related posting from last week about the aftermath of the shooting in Connecticut. )
In another corner of the world, other workers were homicide victims. The New York Times offers a tribute to 10 medical workers who were killed while on a mission to provide aid to remote Afghanistan villages that generally don’t have access to medical care. Workers included 6 U.S. medical personnel and humanitarian workers, one German, one Briton and two Afghans.
Volunteer firefighter case – The Chicago Tribune reports on a recent Iowa court finding in a dispute between two insurers which ruled that a volunteer firefighter must be officially summoned to duty to be covered by workers’ comp. Justin Fauer died while trying to rescue his boss from a manure pit. In addition to being a farm worker at the farm where he died, Fauer was also a volunteer firefighter. According to the report, “The farm’s insurance company, Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company, paid the claim but sought for it to be shared by the fire department’s company, Traveler’s Insurance Company, claiming Fauer also responded as a firefighter.” The Iowa Supreme Court upheld a district court decision that “…a volunteer firefighter cannot be summoned to duty by circumstances, but can only be summoned by the fire department or some other official channel.”
Deadline reminder to 9-11 recovery workersGround Zero workers must register by September 13 of this year to be eligible for future worker’s compensation benefits if they are sick or should become sick as a result of 9/11 exposure. Less than half the estimated 100,000 volunteers and workers who are eligible to register have done so. Authorities urge workers to register as a precaution. Joel Shufro of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health says that “”You don’t have to experience symptoms to file for this …You may never use it. We are seeing so many workers now developing symptoms and some are getting worse. So this is a very protective measure, safety net, so people who do get sick in the future will have protection.”
Popcorn Lung – Richard Bales of Workplace Prof Blog posts that an Illinois jury has awarded $30.4 million to a plant worker suffering severe lung disease from diacetyl. See more from on the popcorn lung case from the Joplin Globe.
BP agrees to pay for safety violations at Texas City refinery
Liz Borowski of The Pump Handle reminds us that before BP became synonymous with the Gulf oil disaster, it’s prior “claim to fame” was the 2005 Texas City refinery disaster that killed 15 workers. When OSHA conducted a 2009 follow-up investigation, it issued $50.6 million in failure-to-abate citations, plus $30.7 million for 439 new willful violations it identified. BP had disputed these violations, but last week, agreed to pay the entire $50.6 million.

News roundup: popcorn lung, medical tourism, health care matters, and more

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007

Popcorn lung – We’ve previously taken OSHA to task for being slow off the mark in protecting workers who are at risk for severe respiratory illnesses related to exposure to microwave popcorn butter flavorings containing diacetyl. Now, while the agency continues to “seek evidence”, legislators have passed a diacetyl bill requiring the agency to issue an interim final standard to minimize worker exposure to diacetyl in popcorn and flavor manufacturing plants. In response, OSHA has scheduled public hearings and issued a Safety and Health Information Bulletin on Respiratory Disease Among Employees in Microwave Popcorn Processing Plants and Hazard Communication Guidance for diacetyl. But OSHA is still balking at issuing an emergency standard for diacetyl, falling back on its preferred voluntary compliance philosophy.
Medical tourism – David Williams of MedTripInfo.com has just released a white paper on medical tourism in conjunction with MedPharma Partners LLC, a health care and life sciences consulting firm: Medical Tourism: Implications for Participants in the US Health Care System (PDF). We’ve talked about the issue of medical tourism before – this is an issue to keep on your radar screen. David’s paper is worth a read. Among the predictions:

  • US health insurers will start to provide coverage for medical tourism in 2008. Mini-med plans and small employers -not big health plans and blue chip companies– will lead the way.
  • State governments will begin to embrace medical tourism by 2010.
  • Opposition to medical tourism by US physicians will be relatively modest.
  • Medical tourism won’t have a major, direct impact on US health care costs, but the secondary impact will be substantial.

40 years and counting – Congratulations to the folks at Business Insurance on their 40 Year Anniversary. We’ve long thought that the publication has some of the best reporters and editors in the industry – kudos to all. They’ve put together some interesting restropsective features from their 40-year history, some available online to nonsubscribers: 40 Years of Business Insurance.
Debunking viral health care spam – Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters does a great job debunking a viral e-mail from an anonymous concerned Canadian warning the U.S. about universal health care coverage. Moral of the story: never believe unsolicited emails and know your source.
McCain on Health care – Bob Laszewski of Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review offers an analysis of Senator John McCain’s Health Care Reform Plan. This follows last week’s analysis of the Clinton health care plan.
Immigration crackdown effects on the slaughterhouse – Thanks to Workplace Prof Blog for pointing us to a New York Times article we’d missed on how the immigration crackdown is affecting the work force in the slaughterhouse industry. Work in meat-packing industries is right up there in terms of grueling and dangerous jobs, and many plants are finding it difficult to replace undocumented workers who were displaced during recent immigrant raids.
Foot powerErgonomics in the News discusses a foot mouse / slipper mouse as an alternative when repetitive strain injuries preclude the use of a traditional mouse.

Workers compensation and related news from the weblog world

Saturday, March 20th, 2004

Adjuster.com brings us the story of California’s $7 billion workers compensation miscalculation.
“The reform savings calculations resulting from the late last year (September 2003) Reform and subsequent predicted figures were recalculated by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) and found to contain egregious errors which retranslated into a newly predicted potential savings for this year, 2004. The prediction in savings is to about 7 billion dollars overall for the Workers’ Compensation system.”

Jottings By an Employer’s Lawyer points to an upcoming debate over domestic violence legislation that would have FMLA type implications for employers.
“Although domestic violence is certainly a problem and one that does need to be addressed by both the employer community and Congress it should be done in a much more organized fashion than passing a complex, expansive bill in the middle of an election year. The legislation would cover victims of sexual and domestic violence, which is defined to include “an individual who has been a victim of domestic or sexual violence and an individual whose family or household member has been a victim of domestic or sexual violence.” Those protected would be entitled to Title VII type protection against discrimination, FMLA type leave and a liberalization of requirements for unemployment.”

Jordan Barab’s Confined Space has many worthwhile items, as usual. Today, he has an item about the Mexican government’s reaction to the AP story about the workplace death toll of Mexican workers, a follow-up to an item that he covered earlier in the week.
He has an item on a new publication from NIOSH, “Does it really work? How to evaluate safety and health changes in the workplace.” And he’s also been blogging blow-by-blow coverage of the recent popcorn lung suit, in which he notes that “Workers in this country are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine. The health effects of chemical aren’t adequately studied, and when they are, the results are hidden — until someone notices that workers are starting to get sick and die.”