MEC&F Expert Engineers : 02/05/15

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Worker dies of injuries suffered at International Paper mill

January 25, 2015

TICONDEROGA, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities say a worker at International Paper's Ticonderoga mill has died after suffering severe burns in an accident at the mill's power house.

A company spokeswoman says 57-year-old Jorg Borowski of Schroon Lake died Friday evening at The University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.

The Plattsburgh Press-Republican reports (http://bit.ly/1D6uvX3 ) that Borowski was on the maintenance crew at the mill. He was hurt Friday morning in an accident at the facility that burns fuel oil and bark to generate electricity for the plant's two paper machines.

International Paper and U.S. Occupational Safety and Health investigators were at the site Saturday to probe the death.

Top 10 OSHA trends for 2015

January 8, 2015

Two regulatory deadlines in the first half of the year are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what’s happening with OSHA in 2015.

OSHA’s revised injury and illness reporting rules go into effect right away in the new year. The agency says it will also start enforcing these rules immediately – no grace period. Some industries have been added to the list of those that have to comply with these rules, while others fall off the list. One other significant change: Companies now have to report all employee hospitalizations due to workplace injuries. Previously, companies only had to report when there were three or more hospitalizations.

The second OSHA regulatory deadline this year is aimed at manufacturers and distributors, but a wider range of employers should also take note. By June 1, 2015, all new chemical labels and safety data sheets must conform to the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) – OSHA’s revised Hazard Communication Standard. For employers using chemicals, that means more and more labels and SDSs that their employees see will comply with GHS. However, it’s possible some old-style labels and SDSs will be around for a while. Distributors may still ship products with the old labels until Dec. 1, 2015.

OSHA is conducting slightly fewer inspections each year, but the companies receiving citations are paying higher fines. The fewer fines statistic comes with an asterisk for the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2014: The government shutdown in fall 2013 prohibited OSHA from conducting certain types of inspections until a new federal budget was approved. Meanwhile, the average cost of a federal OSHA fine increased from $1,897 in 2013 to $2,067 in 2014. The number of cases in which fines totaled more than $100,000 also increased from 2013 to 2014. The number of cases termed “egregious” (when OSHA issues instance-by-instance fines) also increased.

State-plan states are keeping pace with their workplace safety inspections. The number of state inspections in 2014 remained about the same as in 2013, around 50,000.

More and more companies are landing in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program. Currently, there are more than 400 companies in the SVEP – an almost 25% increase compared to the previous year. The SVEP concentrates resources on inspecting employers that have demonstrated indifference to their workplace safety obligations by committing willful, repeated, or failure-to-abate violations. Companies in the program can expect follow-up inspections including ones at locations other than where the original violations occurred. Companies in the program tend to be smaller ones. More than half have 25 or fewer employees.

More OSHA inspections are now due to employee complaints than previously. In 2014, 27% of inspections resulted from complaints, compared to 20-24% in previous years. OSHA says this may be due to its direct outreach to employees. It’s likely the trend will continue.

Watch for slow progress in OSHA’s work to update the silica standard. OSHA held public hearings on the proposal in 2014 and says it will finish analyzing comments from those hearings in June 2015. The window for enacting this somewhat controversial standard may be after the November 2016 election but before President Obama leaves office in January 2017.

OSHA is in the progress of developing revised ergonomic guidelines for the healthcare industry. OSHA already publishes ergonomic guidelines for several industries. While these aren’t regulations, OSHA has used its General Duty Clause to cite companies for ergonomic violations when accepted industry guidelines are available.

Look for some movement in OSHA’s attempt to update its chemical standards – particularly permissible exposure limits. The agency is expected to publish the results of a Request for Information soon. However, a revised rule is still probably years away.

Another initiative that is moving along slowly (but it is moving) is the presidential mandate to review OSHA’s Process Safety Management regulations. This was in reaction to the fatal explosion in West, TX. OSHA expected to conduct a small business review on this issue by June 2015.

Falls requiring time off from work increase

A new report shows good news overall regarding occupational injuries that require time off from work. But some types of these injuries are up.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) annual report, Nonfatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Requiring Days Away From Work, shows the case rate decreased in 2013. The rate was 109.4 cases per 10,000 full-time workers, down from 111.8 in 2012.

The median number of days away from work to recuperate decreased from 9 in 2012 to 8 in 2013.

The rate of falls on the same level increased to 15.4 in 2013 from 14.8 in 2012, with increases in construction, wholesale trade, and transportation and warehousing.

Some other findings from the BLS report:

In the healthcare and social assistance sector, 13% of the injuries and illnesses were the result of violence, which is an increase.
Incidence rates and counts for private sector heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers and food preparation workers increased in 2013.
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs, also known as ergonomic injuries) accounted for 33% of all injury and illness cases in 2013. Nursing assistants and laborers and freight, stock and material movers incurred the highest number of MSD cases in 2013. Ergonomic injuries accounted for 53% of total cases for nursing assistants in 2013.
The leading event or exposure that led to an injury that required days away from work in 2013 was overexertion (when the body is pushed beyond its healthy limits) and bodily reaction (from bodily motions including climbing, reaching, bending, tripping without falling, etc.). Overexertion and bodily reaction accounted for 35% of all cases. For laborers and nursing assistants, overexertion and bodily reaction was also the leading event or exposure, accounting for about 40% and 55% of cases respectively.
Workers 45 to 54 had the highest number of days-away-from-work cases in 2013, with a rate of 119.9. The incidence rate for workers 65 and over increased while the rates decreased for workers 20-24, 25-34 and 35-44.

This BLS report is the third in an annual series of three which includes a report on fatal injuries and a report on all injuries and illnesses.

Fatal shooting focuses attention on workplace violence

January 26, 2015

Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a serious injury or fatality to focus attention on a particular workplace hazard. That’s exactly what has happened following the fatal shooting of a doctor at a Veterans Affairs clinic in El Paso, Texas.
VA psychologist Timothy Fjordbak was shot and killed earlier this month on the fourth floor of the El Paso clinic.

An Iraq war veteran and former clinic employee, Jerry Serrato, took his own life that day at the facility. Authorities believe Serrato killed Fjordbak, the facility’s chief psychologist.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald has promised to ramp up security at the El Paso clinic and other VA facilities.

The El Paso facility didn’t have any metal detectors. Following the shooting, it’s now checking IDs and baggage of 100% of entrants to the facility. Visitors also are hand-wanded for metal.

The VA says it will also:

announce a new policy for dealing with active shooters in the coming weeks
address staff shortages, and
install standardized security and surveillance systems (cameras, door alarms, motion detectors, central monitoring stations).

The El Paso shooting certainly isn’t the first suffered at a VA facility.

“Why has it taken this long to protect lives?” asked John Glidewell, former chief of police at the Cheyenne, WY, medical center.

Glidewell tells The Washington Post he’s been raising security issues for the 10 years he’s been with the VA Police. “The VA is ripe for a mass killing but no one is listening to us,” Glidewell said.

Glidewell filed complaints with various federal offices regarding security at VA facilities. He was removed from his duties in Cheyenne after posting criticism of the VA on his Facebook page. He’s on paid leave pending reassignment within VA.

Almost 4 times overall injury rate

The rate of nonfatal occupational injuries involving days away from work for healthcare and social assistance workers was 15 per 10,000 full-time workers in 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The private industry rate overall is 4.

Surveys show anywhere between 35% and 80% of hospital staff have been physically assaulted at least once during their careers.

One state is reporting a significant increase of assaults of employees of hospitals. In Minnesota, the number of workers with assault claims resulting in workers’ comp benefits increased from 30 in 2007 to 109 in 2013. Preliminary figures for 2014 show the total will be close to the 2013 numbers.

Given these statistics, the results of a recent survey of risk managers at healthcare facilities is a bit surprising.

Aon asked what is the No. 1 concern of risk managers. Workplace violence didn’t even make the list.

When the question was expanded to their No. 1, 2 and 3 concerns, workplace violence finally shows up at 6%.

What tops the list? Patient handling (lifting) and materials handling (including needle sticks). Both are serious risks, and they’re something healthcare professionals are likely to face much more often than workplace violence.

On the other hand, as we’ve seen with the VA recently, all you need is one incident to bring workplace violence to the top of a priority list.

Court upholds $5.3 million jury verdict: Worker suffered traumatic brain injury

February 5, 2015

A state appeals court has OK’d a jury award of $5.3 million to a worker who suffered traumatic brain injury from a fall on the job. Why didn’t workers’ comp cover this case?

Answer: The incident happened in Texas, the only state where workers’ comp is optional for employers. The employee was able to sue his employer and win because the company opted out of workers’ comp (about 33% of eligible Texas companies do). Here’s what happened:

On April 23, 2007, Charles Robison was helping to cover a load on a flatbed trailer in the shipyard of West Star Transportation.

The flatbed load was uneven, containing both uncrated equipment and pallets of differing heights. The load was 13 feet tall at its highest point.

As West Star, having to cover a load that tall was unusual. The company didn’t have the equipment necessary to complete the task. It had to borrow a forklift from a neighboring business to lift a 150-pound tarp to the top of the load.
Robison was also lifted to the top of the load by standing on a pallet being raised by the forklift. He fell while standing on the load, manipulating the tarp without safety equipment or assistance. As a result, he suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Robison and his wife sued West Star, saying the company was “negligent in failing to provide a reasonably safe place to work.” They offered to settle for the remaining limits of West Star’s insurance policy. However, the company didn’t reply to the offer in writing. Its lawyer called the Robisons’ attorney in an attempt to verbally accept the settlement. However, Texas state law requires that agreements “be in writing, signed and filed with the papers as part of the record.”

West Star missed the deadline for accepting the settlement in writing.

When the case went to trial, a jury found West Star’s negligence was a proximate cause of the incident and Robison’s injuries. For damages, the jury awarded:

$300,000 for past physical pain and mental anguish
$700,000 for future physical pain and mental anguish
$168,540 for past loss of earning capacity
$243,184 for future loss of earning capacity
$5,000 for past physical impairment
$378,718 for past medical care
$3,337,857 for future medical care, and
$400,000 to his wife for loss of consortium.

The final judgment credited West Star for benefits its insurer had already paid and awarded actual damages of just under $5.3 million.
A Texas appeals court recently affirmed the jury verdict and award amount.
(West Star Transportation Inc. v. Charles and Cherie Robison, Court of Appeals, Seventh District of Texas, No. 07-13-00109-CV, 1/23/15)

Nursing Assistants Face More Workplace Injuries Than Any Other Profession

There are more than 35,000 back and other injuries among nursing employees annually, according to surveys by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, pharmacists urge Medicare to protect seniors from insurance changes that make it difficult to fill prescriptions.

NPR: Hospitals Fail To Protect Nursing Staff From Becoming Patients
According to surveys by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are more than 35,000 back and other injuries among nursing employees every year, severe enough that they have to miss work. Nursing assistants and orderlies each suffer roughly three times the rate of back and other musculoskeletal injuries as construction laborers.

In terms of sheer number of these injuries, BLS data show that nursing assistants are injured more than any other occupation, followed by warehouse workers, truckers, stock clerks and registered nurses. (Zwerdling, 2/4)

CQ Healthbeat: Local Pharmacists Urge Corrective Action Against Aetna
Neighborhood pharmacists say Medicare officials should do more to avoid situations where seniors have trouble filling prescriptions, as about 400,000 beneficiaries did earlier this year when Aetna Inc. incorrectly identified some pharmacies as being in their network.

About 220,000 seniors lost the ability to use pharmacies that were allowed last year after Aetna changed its list of participating establishments. And pharmacies that the company encouraged 240,000 seniors to use in 2014 in order to lower out-of-pocket costs are no longer able to offer those discounts this year. (Adams, 2/4)

Claims center established for Yellowstone River pipeline spill

Posted: Feb 05, 2015 5:29 AM EST Updated: Feb 05, 2015 5:29 AM EST

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - A claims center has been set up in Glendive for people who suffered financial losses from a 30,000-gallon oil spill into the Yellowstone River.

Pipeline owner Bridger Pipeline LLC of Casper, Wyo. will be responsible for any valid claims submitted. Claims can include costs from the removal of oil or damage to natural resources, loss of profits by a business and the costs of the public response to the spill.

Claims that are denied or not resolved within 90 days can be submitted to the U.S. Coast Guard for consideration.

The spill temporarily contaminated water supplies for 6,000 people in Glendive.

Cleanup crews have struggled to recover the crude that entered the river because it's largely covered with ice.

LEARNING THE HARD WAY: 21 STUDENTS HOSPITALIZED AFTER SCIENCE EXPERIMENT MISHAP AT QUEENS SCHOOL, NYC

February 5, 2015

Queens, NY

QUEENS — Twenty-one students were taken to local hospitals after an incident during a science experiment at a Richmond Hill Catholic school, officials said.

Children were treated for eye irritation and inhalation after one of the students accidentally mixed two substances that were not supposed to be combined inside a classroom at Holy Child Jesus Catholic Academy, at 111-02 86th Ave., near 111th Street, about 9:37 a.m., an FDNY spokesman said.

The sixth grade students worked on a science project, when one of them mixed hydrochloric acid and aluminum, which filled the classroom with fumes, students and parents said.

The teacher quickly took the children out of the classroom and called 911, said Stefanie Gutierrez, press secretary for the Diocese of Brooklyn.

"All of the kids [that were in the classroom] were taken to local hospitals and they are OK," Gutierrez added. "They were taken as a precaution and some of them have already been released."

Brianna Grady, who was one of the students taken to the hospital, said that the experience was "a little bit scary."

"Some kids had difficulty breathing," she said.

Brianna's father, Brian Grady, said he was upset because he found out about the incident while watching the news.

Gutierrez said that she had no details as to how the mishap happened.

The school serves students from kindergarten to eighth grade, according to the school's website.

BRAVO! WISCONSIN: 36 TRAFFIC DEATHS MAKE JANUARY 4TH SAFEST IN DECADE

February 4, 2015

Green Bay, Wisconsin:

Thirty-six people were killed in traffic crashes statewide in January.

Preliminary numbers from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation indicate it was the fourth-safest January in the last decade. The lowest January death toll was in 2010 when there were 20 fatalities. The highest was 82 in 1964, according to the department.

A number of Northeastern Wisconsin counties recorded deaths last month, including Oconto County which had two, both from a head-on collision Jan. 11 near Oconto Falls.

Brown County had one death, according to preliminary numbers from the state.

With lower gas prices and a rebounding economy, state transportation officials expect an increase in travel this year.

“With more vehicles on the road traveling longer distances, the overall risk for traffic crashes increases,” David Pabst, director of the department of transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Safety, stated in a press release. “All of us need to do everything possible to maintain a steady decrease in fatal crashes until we reach the ultimate goal of zero preventable traffic deaths in Wisconsin.”

The department says 498 people were killed in traffic crashes last year, well under the five-year average of 551.

DRUNK DRIVER IN FATAL ACWORTH, GA COLLISION GETS PRISON TIME. THE DRIVER'S BLOOD ALCOHOL CONTENT WAS OVER THREE TIMES THE LEGAL LIMIT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.

February 5, 2015

An Acworth, Georgia man who killed another person as the result of a drunk driving wreck will spend the rest of the decade behind bars, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.

Kenneth Lee Chitwood, 49, was behind the wheel of his Chevrolet Silverado just after midnight on Feb. 22, 2014 when he slammed into a stationary pickup truck which was parked on a section of Mars Hill Road near Cobb Parkway which is not used for traffic, the DA’s Office said.

The driver of the second truck, James Payton Underwood of Paulding County, was standing next to his vehicle when the accident occurred. Underwood, 50, was knocked to the ground as a result of the collision and was pronounced dead a short time later, leaving behind four children.

According to the DA’s Office, Chitwood’s blood alcohol content at the time of the accident was 0.27, over three times the legal limit.

Chitwood pleaded guilty to DUI and homicide by vehicle on Tuesday and was sentenced to 15 years, with five to be served behind bars and the rest on probation.

“Mr. Underwood’s death was so utterly senseless and preventable,” ADA John Pursley said. “Drinking and driving is never acceptable.”