Articles Tagged with ''occupational illness''

Twenty-nine Los Angeles firefighters have filed a lawsuit against Southern California Gas Co., alleging that the utility lied to them about the chemical hazards of a well blowout they responded to in October 2015, resulting in health problems from their exposure to toxins.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is in favor an electronic submission requirement in OSHA’s proposed rule for the tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses – but it wants a worker privacy study conducted before the rule is finalized. In a letter sent to the agency’s Director of Technical Support and Emergency Management, Amanda Edens, AIHA Director of Government Relations Mark Ames offered recommendations on the rule.

Recent studies show that the occurrence of Pneumoconiosis, or Black Lung disease, among coal miners across the Nation has skyrocketed beyond anything ever seen before in the industry. Younger, less experienced miners are contracting the disease at an earlier age, subjecting them to a shortened and debilitating existence until they ultimately succumb to the ravages of the illness.

The International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA) has announced that Roger Alesbury MSc, Dip OH, CFFOH will be the recipient of the IOHA Lifetime Achievement Award. The prestigious award will be conferred during the 11th IOHA International Scientific Conference (IOHA 2018), hosted by the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) in Washington, DC in September 2018.

After reaching a low point in the late 1990s, the national prevalence of coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (black lung) in miners with 25 years or more of tenure now exceeds 10 percent and in some areas is much higher than that, according to a study published in the American Public Health Association’s American Journal of Public Health.

The Black Lung Benefits Program is more than $4 billion dollars in debt, and a 55 percent reduction scheduled at the end of 2018 in the production tax paid by coal companies will cause that deficit to nearly quadruple over the next 30 years, according to a recent report by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO).

General industry and maritime employers must comply with OSHA’s silica standard by June 23, except for phase-in dates for medical surveillance and for engineering controls in the oil and gas industry.

The rapid rise in severe cases of black lung disease has seen a corresponding increase in lifesaving and expensive lung transplants, which are mostly paid for by public insurance, according to a new study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Researchers found that the rate of lung transplants related to coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP) has increased nearly threefold.

AIHce showed a movie matinee on Tuesday. The documentary, “Complicit,” takes the audience to the worldʼs electronics factory floors, revealing the situations under which Chinaʼs youth population has shifted by the millions in search of a better life. The documentary focuses on exposures to benzene and n-hexane and the workers and activists putting pressure on the major companies and brands to prevent the exposures that changed their lives.

The Kentucky legislature this week passed a bill to exclude radiologists from the types of doctors who can diagnose black lung disease among miners seeking workers’ compensation for their illness. A radiologist uses x-rays to diagnose disease. Black lung disease is diagnosed through x-rays and an occupational history.