Safe Workplace and Safety News

Monday, June 04, 2012

Safety News Briefs - Week Ending June 2nd - Updated

A weekly feature that provides short summaries of safety related news with links to the complete stories in other publications.

Painkillers Hike Workers’ Compensation Cost, Insurers Say

The Boston Globe reports that "Workers who received high doses of opioid painkillers to treat injuries such as back strain stayed off the job three times longer than those with similar injuries who took lower doses, a 2008 study of claims by the California Workers Compensation Institute found."

Read the complete story in the Boston Globe.

MSHA, Prosecutors Continue To Probe Alpha Pelt Incident

"Federal prosecutors and mine safety officials are continuing to closely examine events at an Alpha Natural Resources mine in Wyoming County where a burned conveyor belt prompted the largest inspection sweep ever of a single company's mines."

Read the complete story in the WV Gazette-Mail.

$24M Jury Award Against Coca-Cola To Woman Hit By Coca-Cola Driver On Cell Phone

A Corpus Christi jury awarded $24 million to a woman who was hit by a Coca-Cola truck driver who was chatting on her cellphone. Chatman-Wilson's attorneys argued their client suffered neck and back pain and had to undergo lumbar surgery after the 2010 accident, when the truck hit the Ford Fusion she was driving.

Read the complete story on the KABC News web site.

OSHA Rules On Workplace Toxics Stalled

"The federal standard in place to protect workers like Revers from beryllium is based on an Atomic Energy Commission calculation crafted by an industrial hygienist and a physician in the back of a taxi in 1949. For the last 12 years, an effort to update that standard has been mired in delay. A plan to address another toxic hazard — silica, a mineral that also damages the lungs — has been tied up even longer: 15 years."

Read more: in NJ Today

Labels: MHSA, OSHA, Vehicle Safety