Disability awareness

The quality of life experienced by people with MCS is shaped, to a great extent, by the level of awareness of environmental health issues where they live and work. Some are recipients of workplace accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act others are harassed and ostracized at work, or fired from their jobs. Some disabled by chemical exposures in the workplace receive workers compensation the majority of chemical-illness claims are denied. Some cities, schools and other institutions have adopted fragrance-free policies and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs to reduce chemical barriers and dangers in public places others still resist despite all the prevalence studies and research indicating that MCS is a serious threat to public health. 

This team must be skilled in handling the complex origin of disability. Risk factors for the disease to become chronic are often of a psychosocial and not a physical nature. Primary targets of treatment should be physical fitness and the self-management of problems by the patient. Awareness of the psychosocial factors, which can disturb occupational reintegration, should be developed. Rehabilitation is based on measures to modify patient s beliefs and fitness. The prescribed treatment should aim to relieve pain, correct disability, prevent relapses, inform and educate the patient. 

What is needed To begin with, mental health professionals, physicians, and the public must become more skeptical, perhaps even cynical, and certainly more sophisticated about what psychiatric drugs and electroshock really do to the brain, mind, and person. Awareness of medication spellbinding and the brain-disabling principles of psychiatric treatment is key to this understanding. Psychiatric drugs do not cure mental disorders. Instead, their primary or essential effect is to cause brain dysfunction and compromise mental and emotional acuity. 

The Navy should be aware that the altered atmospheric conditions on a disabled submarine would affect the toxicity of the gases. For example, cold temperatures will cause crew members to shiver this will increase the rate of respiration because of an increase in metabolic rate. Lower air temperature might also result in the crew s breathing unconditioned air, which is a risk factor for lowerairway disease and airway hyperactivity. However, data are lacking on the precise magnitude of effects therefore, the Navy should conduct research to determine the nature and magnitude of the effects from altered submarine atmospheric conditions. 

Other parameters that should be taken into consideration are the distribution of the gases throughout the submarine whether particular gases can be metabolized, absorbed, or neutralized by the crew and whether the crew can acclimate to the gases at the concentrations present. Because of the lack of data on the effects of such parameters on toxicity of the gases, the subcommittee did not consider them in recommending SEALs. The senior officer on a disabled submarine should be aware of this limitation of the SEALs. 

As modern lifestyles and new feeding habits settle in the world, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have evolved to be major causes of disability in developing as well as developed countries. As a concomitant effect, there is a growing interest in natural, healthy food and an increasing awareness of risk factors and determinants of disease. This chapter describes some nutritional facts about seaweeds, which have been used as food since ancient times in China, Japan, Egypt, and India and comments on the potential utilization of marine algae as functional foods. 

Title I of the Americans with DisabUity Act (ADA, 1990) prohibits discrimination with regard to any aspect of the employment process. Thus, the development of preplacement tests has been impeded by the possibility of discrimination against individuals based on gender, age, or medical condition. The ADA requires physical tests to simulate the essential functions of the task. In addition, one must be aware of reasonable accommodations, such as lifting aids, that may make an otherwise infeasible task possible for a disabled applicant to perform. Healthcare providers who perform physical examinations and provide recommendations for job apphcants must consider the rights of disabled applicants. It is extremely crucial to quantify the specific physical requirements of the job to be performed and to examine an applicant s capabilities to perform those specific tasks, taking into account any reasonable accommodations that may be provided. Hence, task analysis and functional capacity assessment are truly intertwined. 

Disability-related policies Given the responsibilities of the safety and health function, it is imperative that the safety and health professional possess, at a minimum, an awareness of the company s requirements regarding disability, accommodation, short-term disability, and long-term disability policies. 

Safety professionals should be aware that the ADA utilizes the broader language of disability rather than the term handicapped adopted under the Rehabilitation Act. Eor an individual to be considered disabled under the ADA, the physical or mental impairment must limit one or more major life activities. Under the U.S. Justice... 

Safety professionals shonld be aware that the company or organization wonld be reqnired to make reasonable accommodations for any/all known physical or mental limitations of the qnalihed individnal with a disability, unless the employer can demonstrate that the accommodations wonld impose an undue hardship on the business, or that the particnlar disability directly affects the safety and health of that individnal or others. Safety professionals should also be aware that included under this section is the prohibition against the use of qualihcation standards, employment tests, and other selection criteria that can be used to screen out individuals with disabilities, unless the employer can demonstrate that the procedure is directly related to the job funetion. In addition to the modifications to facilities, work schedules, equipment, and training programs, the company or organization is required to initiate an informal interactive (communication) process with the qualified individual to promote voluntary disclosure of his or her specific limitations and restrictions to enable the employer to make appropriate accommodations that will compensate for the limitation. ... 

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