Compensation, injury

One other area of recent debate in workers compensation cases involves shift-work-maladaption syndrome. These cases usually involve workers who are unable to adapt to working a third shift. Workers asserting these claims usually complain of being unable to adapt their personal sleeping schedules to the late shift, and suffer from continued sleep deprivation. American courts have rejected shift-work-maladaption syndrome as a compensable injury under the workers compensation definitions of injury, and generally hold that harm occasioned by the mere scheduling of hours is not enough to state a claim (53). A worker must show that a specific injury has been caused by a specific workplace condition or job function. 

A tribunal in Nova Scotia has recently held otherwise. In Michelin v Nova Scotia (Workers Compensation Board), a worker who was in perfect health and had no outside habits that would adversely affect his sleep complained that working variable shifts adversely affected his work and private life (54). The workers compensation tribunal found that shift-work-maladaption syndrome is a compensable injury under the workers compensation scheme. The board found the condition disabling because the worker was too tired to work safely, and his inability to adapt to the alternating shifts was the cause of the injury. The board also found persuasive the worker s clean and healthy lifestyle that did not otherwise affect his sleep. 

At the same time, these programs will help employers avoid the substantial cost impacts and business disruptions that accompany occupational injuries, illnesses and deaths. One widely-cited source regarding estimates of the magnitude of these costs is the Liberty Mutual Research Institute, which reports the direct cost of the most disabling workplace injuries in 2008 to be 53 billion (Liberty Mutual Research Institute 2010). Another source, the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), estimates the annual workers compensation benefits paid for all compensable injuries and illnesses in 2009 at 58 billion (National Academy of Social Insurance 2011). NASI further reports the total costs paid by employers for workers compensation increased from 60 billion in 2000 to 74 billion in 2009. 

Our simulations and other researchers econometric results underscore workers compensation insurance provides economic incentives for employers to make their workplaces safer. The positive influence of WC on safety appears when actual injuries are measured instead of injury rates that reflect reporting bias. Public policy must cope with the fact that higher WC benefits lead some workers to file spurious claims for compensation and to spend more time away from work recovering from compensable injuries. 

Another source, the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), estimates the annual workers compensation benefits paid for all compensable injuries and illnesses in 2009 at 58 billion (National Academy of Social Insurance, 2011). NASI further reports the total costs paid by employers for workers compensation increased from 60 billion in 2000 to 74 billion in 2009. 

We have both experienced what looked like major improvements in both TCIR and workers compensation injuries only to find that organizational changes had reduced exposures with shifts from permanent employees to contractors or temporary employees, technology changes, etc. The overall safety culture remained unchanged as well as the basic hazards and associated risk. 

Occupational health professionals and hazard control managers must coordinate and communicate issues on a continuous basis. Provide prompt emergency treatment of all injuries and illnesses. The coordination of safety and health functions helps workers learn how to protect themselves from hazards. Recommend a multidisciplinary approach to manage health, risks, and costs. Report all work-related incidents of injury and exposure allegations immediately to employee health. Employee health should monitor, manage, or coordinate all workers compensation injuries, reports on progress, imposition of necessary work restrictions, and return to work evaluations. Pre-employment placement evaluations should focus on job-related issues with a thorough job analysis as part of... 

Medical Programs. Large chemical plants have at least one hill-time physician who is at the plant five days a week and on call at all other times. Smaller plants either have part-time physicians or take injured employees to a nearby hospital or clinic by arrangement with the company compensation-insurance carrier. When part-time physicians or outside medical services are used, there is Httle opportunity for medical personnel to become familiar with plant operations or to assist in improving the health aspects of plant work. Therefore, it is essential that chemical-ha2ards manuals and procedures, which highlight symptoms and methods of treatment, be developed. A hill-time industrial physician should devote a substantial amount of time to becoming familiar with the plant, its processes, and the materials employed. Such education enables the physician to be better prepared to treat injuries and illnesses and to advise on preventive measures. 

To determine which jobs you should analyze first, review your injury and illness reports such as the OSHA 200 log, your medical case histories, your first-aid cases, and workers compensation claims. First, you should conduct a JHA for jobs with the highest rates of disabling injuries and illnesses. Do not forget jobs in which you have had close calls or near hits. You should give these incidents a high priority. Analyses of new jobs and jobs in which changes have been made in processes and procedures should be the next priority. 

Toxic effects often disappear after the cessation of the exposure, but they can also be permanent. The tissue s ability to regenerate is one of the most important factors that determines the nature of toxic effects. For example, liver tissue has a remarkable capacity to regenerate, and therefore liver injur> is often reversible. On the other hand, neuronal cells do not regenerate at all, thus neuronal injury is irreversible. It is true that neuronal cells can compensate for possible losses, but only to a minor degree. In particular, chronic effects tend to be irreversible. ... 

Fatal accident rate Lost-time injury rate Capital cost of accidents Number of plant/community evacuations Cost of business interruption Cost of workers compensation claims Number of hazardous material spills (in excess of a threshold) Tonnage of hazardous material spilled Tonnage of air, water, liquid and solid effluent Tonnage of polluting materials released into the environment Employee exposure monitoring Number of work related sickness claims Number of regulatory citations and fines Ecological impact of operations (loss or restoration of biodiversity, species, habitats)... 

A breach of duty under either common law or statute that causes injury or damage may result in those responsible having a legal liability to pay compensation (termed damages) to the aggrieved party. 

As previously stated, a business can be held legally liable to pay compensation (damages) for injury or damage caused by its activities, and a successful action against it may result in large financial demands upon the business. Liability insurance ensures that, subject to satisfactory compliance with specified conditions and procedures by the insured, funds are available for a business if it is held... 

Provision for indemnity or compensation in the event of injury or death attributable to the clinical trial... 

Data on nonfatal injuries or chronic diseases caused by chemicals are very difficult to collect. Far too often, it is gathered from reports of compensation Commissions or court decisions in which legal rather than scientific proof prevails. One might venture the guess that at least as many injuries and chronic conditions are caused by synthetic medicaments used improperly, or without adequate medical control, as are caused by the ordinary products of the chemical manufacturing industry. 

Because closure and postclosure activities can be very expensive, the TSDF standards require owners and operators to demonstrate financial assurance. These provisions also require all TSDFs to set aside funds in order to compensate third parties for bodily injury and property damage that might result from hazardous waste management operations. 

Toxic release typically results in little damage to capital equipment. Personnel injuries, employee losses, legal compensation, and cleanup liabilities can be significant. 

Critics have long complained about the ineffectiveness of medical liability law both as a means of reducing the risks of injuries and as a system of compensation for injuries. So far, none of these critiques has led policy makers to jettison our fault-based medical liability system and to replace it with some type of no-fault system as proposed by some scholars. Thus some form of medical liability is going to be a feature of the social and regulatory... 

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