Illness, reporting

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. 

Chien et al. [Ill] reported the formation of tertiary hydioperoxy groups up to 10 adjacent carbon atoms during oxidative degradation. 

Second, there has been another severe outbreak of paralytic shellfish poisoning along the Pacific coast of Central America, with veiy high levels of shellHsh toxicity detected in Guatemala. There have, however, been no deaths and very few illnesses reported there, due to a timely response based on information gained from detailed investigations of the first outbreak. This time they were ready. 

In degreasing operations, there may be exposures to carbon monoxide, which may compound symptoms reported by workers (NIOSH 1973). Illnesses of certain employees, documented at a neighboring hospital, included headache, nausea, dizziness, and chest pain. The NIOSH report concluded that the first employee illness reports were due to toxic effects of carbon monoxide complicated by trichloroethylene exposure. The... 

Li et al. [Ill] reported the simultaneous production of hydrogen and nanocarbon by decomposition of methane on Ni and Ni-Cu catalysts. The authors demonstrated the production of hydrogen with a purity of 80 vol% over 10 h simultaneously, 180 g of nanotubes... 

Health, Berkeley, Pesticide Illness Reported under Health and Safety Code, 1971. 

It is considered desirable to keep workplace exposure to pesticides as low as practical regardless of the current knowledge of their acute and chronic toxicity. All too often pesticides which were considered to be of negligible toxicity are later found to have a potential for causing adverse health effects following a sufficient period of exposure to an adequate dose. DBCP and nitrophen are good examples of this type of problem. We also gather and analyze detailed information on more than 2,000 illness reports per year from physicians who describe possible occupational exposures to specific pesticides. We also obtain or make detailed workplace measurements of the levels of pesticides to which workers may be exposed. 

Chemical Illness Report Page www.chem-tox. com/guest-whistle/guest book.html... 

Prien, R. F., Caffey, E. M., Jr., Klett, C. J. 1973, Prophylactic efficacy of lithium carbonate in manic-depressive illness. Report of the Veterans Administration and National Institute of Mental Health collaborative study group, Arch.Gen.Psychiatry, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 337-341. 

Risk assessment for humans is difficult due to limited toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic data available and the paucity of cases of human illness reported from consumption of food derived from heavily contaminated grains. Risk assessment from nondietary routes of exposure in humans is also complicated by lack of epidemiological data. 

The lifetime population prevalence of schizophrenia is about 1% (Gottesman, 1989). In a landmark transnational study, similar prevalence w as found for schizophrenia in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas (lablensky and Sartorius, 1988). There is no influence of gender in schizophrenia, w ith w omen as likely to develop this condition as men. Males may have an earlier onset of illness, and a more severe course of illness. Some evidence suggests that the prevalence of schizophrenia may be decreasing over time, w ith few er new cases of the illness reported. The age at onset of schizophrenia is late teens to early tw enties. As in bipolar disorder, the onset of first symptoms after age 40 is rare. 

Metrics should relate to the elements of the process safety system. Poorly selected metrics that do not specifically relate to the execution of process safety elements will not provide an accurate evaluation of process safety system performance. Occupational injury and illness reporting rates are sometimes used to judge overall safety performance, and this metric does track the incidence of employee injuries quite well. However, this rate does not reflect the effectiveness of the process safety system. Occupational safety is quite important to the health and well-being of employees, but the metrics involved in assessing the occupational safety performance are not appropriate for process safety system evaluation the detailed elements of a process safety program differ markedly fl-om an occupational safety program (as discussed in Chapter 3). 

More than one third of occupational related injuries or illnesses reported by employees to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics are estimated to be caused by musculoskeletal disorders. In 2003 federal regulations based on occupational management guidelines that are 15 years old are still not finalized as a result of OSHA continuing to work with Congress and small business advocacy groups to complete a rule that is deemed fair to both employees and employers. 

Scientific progre.ss in understanding Gulf War veteran s illnesses Report and recommendations. Available at www.ngwrc.org. Accessed March 20, 2005. 

Overall, the chance of being exposed to hantavirus is greatest when people work, play or live in closed spaces where rodents are actively living. However, recent research results show that many people who have become ill with HPS got the disease after having been in frequent contact with rodents and/or their droppings for some time. In addition, many people who have become ill reported that they had not seen rodents or their droppings—at all. Therefore, if you live in an area where tlie carrier rodents such as the deer mouse are known to live, take sensible precautions before you do activities like those described above—even if you don t see any rodents or their droppings. 

Knaak et al. ( ) detected parathion equivalents in low concentrations in blood soon after topical application. The parathion equivalents reached a maximum concentration within 12 hr as shown by the blood plasma absorption-elimination curve. These blood levels most likely occur in workers exposed to foliar residues of parathion and are responsible for illnesses reported in workers several hr... 

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH 1997) states that musculoskeletal disorders, which include disorders of the back, trunk, upper extremity, neck, and lower extremity are one of the 10 leading work-related illnesses and injuries in the United States. Praemer et al, (1992) report that work-related upper-extremity disorders (WUEDs), which are formally defined by the Biureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as cumulative trauma illnesses, account for 11.0 % of aU work-related musculoskeletal disorders (illnesses). For comparison, occupational low-back disorders account for more than 51.0% of aU WRMDs. According to BLS (1995), the cumulative trauma illnesses of upper extremity accounted for more than 60% of the occupational illnesses reported in 1993. These work-related illnesses, which include hearing impairments due to occupational noise exposure, represent 6.0% of aU reportable work-related injuries and illnesses (Marras 1996). 

As reviewed by Karwowski and Marras (1997), work-related musculoskeletal disorders currently account for one-third of aU occupational injuries and illnesses reported to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by employers every year. These disorders thus constitute the largest job-related injury and illness problem in the United States today. According to OSHA (1999), in 1997 employers reported a total of 626,000 lost workday disorders to the BLS, and these disorders accounted for 1 of every 3 spent for workers compensation in that year. Employers pay more than 15-20 billion in workers compensation costs for these disorders every year, and other expenses associated with MSDs may increase this total to 45-54 billion a year. 

Howard, M.A., AB. Hibbard, D.R. Terrell, et aL 2003. Quinine allergy causing acute severe systemic illness Report of 4 patients manifesting multiple hematologic, renal, and hepatic abnormalities. Proc. Baylor Univ. Med. Cent. 16(l) 21-26. 

Improved business and cost savings including reduced workers compensation praniums, reduced administrative and human resources burden associated with filing injury and illness reports, managing workers compensation cases and training new employees. The companies also experienced improved efficiency in operations and material use, and improved productivity. They were able to leverage their limited health and safety resources. 

Affect the injury and illness reporting and investigation procedure ... 

A. Worksite Analysis. Worksite analysis provides for both the identification of problem jobs and risk factors associated with problem jobs. The first step is to determine what jobs and work stations are the source of the greatest problems. Thus, a systematic analysis program should be initiated by reviewing injuiy and illness reports. 

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