Posts Tagged ‘work safety’

The worst jobs in history

Saturday, April 2nd, 2005

Some point to the medieval guilds as the origin of workers comp; others see the emergence of workers comp as a response to the industrial revolution when dangerous factory jobs grew more prevalent. But the truth is, hard working laborers have been battling dangerous and unpleasant work conditions from time immemorial. The Worst Jobs in History is a journey through 2,000 years of British history and the worst jobs of each era. It is an alternately amusing and horrifying look back at the types of jobs our forebears held, and a description of the work conditions they faced. So if you ever wondered what it would be like to be a Medieval fuller or leech collector, a Tudor woad dyer or groom of the stool, a Stuart nit-picker or plague burier, or a Victorian rat catcher – now’s your chance to find out. You can even take a skills assessment quiz to see which jobs might be best suit you. Jobs for women were relatively scarce – so if I had a career, it is likely I might have been a wise woman or a fish wife

The Myth of the Molly Maguires

Thursday, March 17th, 2005

I thought it might be an interesting commemoration of my Irish heritage to do a post about work conditions that my forebears faced as they immigrated to U.S. shores after the potato famine. Many were involved in the hard labor of building out the impressive canals, dams, and public works projects of the era. But as can easily happen in web wanderings, my searches took me a bit further afield, yet turning up some documents of note, such as an article in the Irish Examiner entitled “They

Airport baggage screening: a high hazard job

Thursday, March 10th, 2005

USA Today recently ran a feature on airport baggage screeners and the extraordinarily high rate of injuries that they suffer in the course of their work. Approximately one out of every four workers reports an injury and one out of 8 workers has an injury that requires lost time. Yikes – this makes bag screening one of the nation’s most hazardous jobs.
Injured workers at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), more than two-thirds of whom are screeners, missed nearly a quarter-million days of work last year. The lost job time has contributed to a staffing shortage that has strained checkpoint security and lengthened lines at airports.
TSA employees injured on the job missed work in 2004 at five times the rate of the rest of the federal workforce. They were injured four times as often as construction-industry workers and seven times as often as miners.

Most of the injuries are soft tissue strains and sprains resulting from lifting and carrying heavy bags. Since most of the screening machines and checkpoints were added after 9/11 and squeezed in wherever they would fit, few screening stations were designed with an eye to ergonomics. OSHA has issued numerous hazard citations to airports across the country.
Adding to these problems, the TSA staffed up quickly and in most instances, strength tests were not part of the application process, and training – at least from a safety standpoint – was minimal. In a snowballing problem, the more staff injuries and absences there are, the more overworked remaining employees are. According to the article, the staff attrition rate last year was 22%.
This is distressing both for the workers involved and also for airline travelers. Although authorities say that security is not being compromised, it is hard to see how injured, overworked, and poorly trained workers can deliver the best results.
Related:
OSHA Ergonomics eTool on Baggage Handling
Safe Lifting
Safe lifting tecchniques
Lifting Safety: Tips to Help Prevent Back Injuries

Interns’ Medical Errors Affected by Work Schedules

Monday, November 15th, 2004

Insurance Journal reports on a study in the October 28, 2004, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine on the link between medical intern work schedules and medical errors. Surprisingly to me, the Brigham and Young research is one of the first studies of its kind, and while the study focuses on patient safety, it is but a short step to think of the implications of sleep deprivation for self injury, as well. The study reports:
The rate of serious medical errors committed by first-year doctors in training in two intensive care units (ICUs) at a Boston hospital fell significantly when traditional 30-hour-in-a-row extended work shifts were eliminated and when interns’ continuous work schedule was limited to 16 hours, according to two complementary studies funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Agency for Healthcare Research (AHRQ).
Interns made 36 percent more serious medical errors, including five times as many serious diagnostic errors, on the traditional schedule than on an intervention schedule that limited scheduled work shifts to 16 hours and reduced scheduled weekly work from approximately 80 hours to 63. The rate of serious medication errors was 21 percent greater on the traditional schedule than on the new schedule.

It would almost seem to be a no-brainer to link extended work hours to mistakes, stress, and self-injury – yet extened hours have been a time-honored and accepted practice in the medical field.
Here are more resources on extended hours in the medical profession:
NIOSH aggregates 52 research reports in a 50-page booklet entitled Overtime and Extended Work Shifts: Recent Findings on Illnesses, Injuries, and Health Behaviors (PDF). For additional research, visit the Harvard Work Hours and Health Study site with links to studies and educational materials regarding extended hours and sleepiness. It is also a place for medical personnel to report medical errors, needlestick injuries, and motor vehicle crash incidents related to sleep deprivation or long work hours.

Workplace deaths increased in 2003

Thursday, September 30th, 2004

Workplace fatalities rose in 2003 to a total of 5,559 deaths, according to the Department of Labor. Here’s a breakdown from the DOL report about the industry segments with the most deaths.
The construction industry had the most deaths – 1,126, followed by 805 deaths in the transportation and warehousing sector.
When the number of workers in each industry was considered, the highest death rate was in the sector of agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, with 31.2 deaths per 100,000 workers. Mining was next, with a rate of 26.9 per 100,000 workers. Construction’s rate was 11.7, and transportation and warehousing’s was 17.5.
The most frequent work-related deaths were on highways – 1,350 last year, compared with 1,373 in 2002.

Texas had 491 job-related deaths last year, earning the dubious distinction of being the state with the highest rate of increase for work-related fatalities. Texas increased by 17.7 percent in 2003, while the national number of fatalities increased by less than one percent compared to 2002.
One of the other trends that the Department of Labor data indicates is that Hispanic workers died on the job more frequently than others, with a rate of 4.5 deaths per 100,000 compared to a rate of 4.0 for whites and 3.7 for blacks.
We’ve posted about the high death rate for Mexican workers before. A recent disturbing report by the News & Observer of Raleigh depicts illegal practices in camps for migrant farm workers in North Carolina. When you read about the shocking and flagrant practices – it’s almost unbelievable to think such abuses occur in the United States – it’s not hard to understand why the death rate is so high.
North Carolina farmers have a legal pipeline to foreign workers, known as the federal H-2A program. But the number of H-2A workers has fallen 15 percent since 2002, from about 10,000 to 8,500 this year. Growers say the rising costs associated with the program have contributed to the decline.
H-2A workers in North Carolina are entitled to a wage of $8.06 an hour, workers compensation and round-trip travel reimbursement. In July, the Ohio-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee began a campaign to unionize H-2A workers.
Instead, farms increasingly find workers through labor contractors.

Whatever the industry, whatever the state, whatever the demographic group, it’s distressing to see work-related fatalities increase. It’s hard not to see a parallel with the “kinder, gentler” OSHA of recent years. As an industry, this is a trend we have to stop in its tracks.

How a workplace injury transformed a life

Thursday, September 9th, 2004

This past Monday, Sean George marched in Pittsburgh’s annual Labor Day parade. While such an event may seem pedestrian, the circumstances that led to it are anything but. A steamfitter and a survivor, George shares the story of his horrific workplace injury with workers and insurers in the hopes that his experience might change the lives of others for the better and help prevent other workers from suffering work injuries. The story of the gas explosion that killed his cousin and put him on a path of pain, depression, addiction, and ultimately, recovery, is a compelling one. It’s terrific that he shares the details of his personal experience — it’s a reminder to all of us that work safety is not an academic exercise; it’s flesh and blood.
Some time ago, we posted another survivor story, that of Candace Carnahan who lost her leg — and who nearly lost her life — when she became caught in a conveyor belt. She was 21 at the time of the injury. While work injuries and deaths can happen to anyone at any age, young and inexperienced workers are particularly vulnerable. Like George, she now devotes her energy to spreading the message of work safety.
We pass on George’s story in the same spirit that he shared it — with the hope that it might influence at least one person — a worker, a supervisor, an employer, or an insurer — to help prevent a work injury today.
Thanks to Jordan Barab at Confined Space for pointing us to this story.

Felony for willful safety violations – legislation gaining traction?

Tuesday, August 17th, 2004

Ron Hayes has worked tirelessly to criminalize willful neglect of federal safety regulations, and some 11 years after he began his quest, legislation that would subject willful violators to felony charges appears to be gaining some traction. We wrote about Ron in April when he was testifying for the Corzine-Kennedy Wrongful Death Accountability Act. That bill was opposed by Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, who called it “just another policy to destroy jobs.” House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said the proposal would be “the worst thing that you could do – telling a small business person that they could go to prison over an OSHA violation.”
The proposed legislation is sponsored by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and observers think it may gain some support among Republicans. The Enzi bill caps penalties at an 18-month jail penalty rather than Corzine-Kennedy’s 10-year jail provision. This will bear watching when congress is back in session. Opponents think we should just enforce existing regulations, but that’s unlikely with OSHA growing “kinder and gentler’ with each passing year. Willful and serial safety violators who play fast and loose with workers’ lives violating basic safety standards need to be held accountable, and this accountability requires something more than a slap on the wrist.
Ron Hayes came by the courage of his convictions the hard way. His 19 year-old son was smothered when 60 tons of corn collapsed on him in a silo that he was cleaning for his employer, Showell Farms. Ron had little help from OSHA – in fact, he was stonewalled by the agency – despite the fact that Showell Farms was found to have six “willful violations”.
After losing his son, Ron quit his job as an X-ray technician, and he and his wife turned thier efforts to founding FIGHT – Families in Grief Holding Together to provide mutual support and to work to the prevention of future work deaths. Their motto: Mourn for the dead and fight for the living.
(Thanks to rawblogXport for pointing us to this story.)

Florida shuts down uninsured employer after two worker deaths

Thursday, August 5th, 2004

A few weeks ago, there was a horrific Florida construction accident that claimed the lives of two workers and injured several others. While laying concrete on the third floor of a new condominium complex, the roof collapsed. News reports of the accident were anguishing – many workers barely jumped to their safety, with others trapped by debris and hardening concrete, coworkers scrabbling frantically to save them. One man was trapped in concrete to his waist but managed to extricate himself before it hardened.
The following is an excerpt from a Florida Sun-Sentinel story after the accident:
“After the awful screeching of the collapsing luxury townhouse building, the first sounds Arturo Ruiz Gil heard were his co-workers’ cries for help.
The 20-year-old construction worker had just fallen 30 feet from the top of the building onto a wet concrete surface. Pushing aside the rubble, he managed to crawl out with his brother, Andres Ruiz Gil, and uncle, Valentin Ruiz, before the concrete hardened.
“We kneeled down, all three of us, and prayed to God and to the Virgin of Guadalupe to help us and help the ones who were trapped,” Andres Ruiz Gil, 19, said.
Two workers were killed and five were injured late Thursday afternoon when the third floor of the building under construction collapsed west of Hobe Sound. Another six construction workers at the Tranquility complex escaped injury, including a 13-year-old West Palm Beach boy.”

In the aftermath of the accident, the owner of Mac’s Construction and Concrete, the subcontracting company where the workers were employed, expressed regret calling the accident a “freak accident.”
Almost immediately, some unusual things were apparent. One of the workers who narrowly escaped injury was a 13 year-old boy, a potential violation of child labor laws. The subcontractor had a history of OSHA citations and fines. And more recently, it was learned that the subcontractor did not have workers compensation coverage for his employees as is mandated by law.
The state of Florida has recently been cracking down on just such employer fraud, and they stepped in slapping a stop work order on the construction subcontractor. (This linked story in Insurance Journal also has an interesting discussion from readers.) Under the law, the offending employer could be liable for fines of 1.5 times the amount of the coverage avoided a day in damages. Other fines and charges could be brought depending on the accident investigation. For example, most states are extremely strict in enforcing child labor laws.
This is a sad and terrible story for so many reasons. Rarely are fatal work accidents freak events – most could be prevented with adherence to safety rules and OSHA standards. It also echoes a shameful story we’ve addressed here before – the heightened vulnerability of Mexican workers whose on-the-job death rate is two to four times higher than other workers.
Related posts
Ohio Getting Tough on Premium Coverage
Dying at Work – Part I and Part II
Modern Day Slavery
More on immigrant workers
When Workers Die
Workers Comp and the Station Nightclub

Lightning strike prevention and survivor resources

Saturday, July 17th, 2004

A recent news story about a 42-year old Bradenton, Florida carpenter who was killed by lightening is sad a reminder that this is the prime season to be on alert for electrical storms. Every year, workers, account for about one third of the total number of people struck by lightening.
Lightning strikes are most likely to occur between 2 pm and 6 pm from June to August. While lightning strikes can occur anywhere, this lightning fatality distribution map demonstrates that there is a greater risk in southern and midwestern states. According to the National Lightning Safety Institute, “eighty five percent of lightning victims are children and young men ages 10-35 engaged in recreation or work. Twenty percent of strike victims die and 70% of survivors suffer serious long-term after effects.
Outdoor workers (or anyone outdoors, for that matter) should take precautions at the early onset of an electrical storm (pdf). These include seeking appropriate shelter and knowing the steps to take as last resort safety measures when in immediate peril.
Workers who spend time outdoors should be trained in prevention. Employers should include lightning safety policies and procedures as part of their overall prevention program, and should review these policies seasonally.
Roofers, construction workers, road crews, and farm workers are examples of jobs at risk, but risk managers should be aware of the risks for inside workers and those in vehicles, too…every year, people are injured or killed by lightning traveling through telephone lines.
According to the National Weather Service, about 20% to 30% of the strikes result in fatalities. The medical conditions resulting from strikes can be complex and sometimes rather mysterious, differing markedly from voltage shocks. In an article entitled Disability, Not Death, Is the Main Problem With Lightning Injury (pdf), Dr. Mary Ann Cooper discusses some of the medical complexities that can plague those recovering from the aftermath of a strike. Lightning Strike & Electrical Shock Survivors International, Inc. (LS&ESSI) is a nonprofit support group for survivors and their families.
More lightning resources
Hazard alert – lightning protection – from the Electronic Library of Construction Occupational Safety & Health (In English and Spanish)
Human Voltage – What Happens When People and Lightning Converge – from Science @ NASA
Lightning’s Social and Economic Costs and other extensive resources from the
National Lightning Safety Institute – an organization that consults and trains in lightning safety and lightning engineering issues.
Lightning survivor stories and lightening photos – from the National Weather Service

Weblog roundup – “concierge medicine,” trench deaths, and other news

Friday, July 2nd, 2004

Asking us if we have lost our capacity for outrage, Tom Mayo reports on the disturbing trend of concierge medicine in a post at HealthLawBlog. The nub of the story is that a class of medicine is emerging where those who can afford it essentially pay an additional premium – or “a bribe,” as some have called it – to ensure quality care. Read his post and the source article from Newsday entitled Good health care: for rich people only?.
Just in time for the 4th of July, OSHA announces and Alliance with the American Pyrotechnics Association to promote fireworks safety. Via rawblogXport.
Perhaps OSHA should be putting more efforts into enforcement and less into Alliances? Jordan Barab reports on another infuriatingly preventable trench death. If you follow Confined Space, this is a sad litany you will find over and over again in his posts. Yet as Jordan reports, compliance with OSHA standards could prevent trench deaths.
Workforce Insights is an online resource for HR practitioners that covers news about emerging labor trends and issues. It’s sponsored by a Fidelity staffing company, Veritude. Thanks to Benefitsblog for the pointer.
Last week, we wrote about workers comp coverage for contract workers in Iraq. For more information on the topic of contract workers in Iraq, Workforce Management currently features an article about contract workers entitled Dangerous Business. Also, the Washington Post has a report about an underclass of foreign workers who are being recruited – often unwittingly – to work in Iraq. These workers get less pay, poor food and shelter, and inadequate safety measures in comparison to U.S. counterparts.
Have you visited KivaCom yet? We’ve pointed it out before, and it is among the resources in our sidebar. It’s a great resource that culls some of the most significant national and regional (Ohio) news stories on workers comp, health care, legal, labor and safety issues…well worth a regular visit.
Over & out – have a happy and safe holiday weekend, people!