Chicago Workers Compensation Lawyer Blog

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued its list of the 10 most common workplace safety violations for the year:

• 9,093 Scaffolding violations: Most common causes of scaffolding accidents involve the support or planking giving way or the employee slipping or getting hit by a falling object.

• 6,771 Fall Protection violations: Workers in the general industry working at a height of four feet or greater must be adequately protected. In the construction arena workers must be protected when working at six feet or higher.

• 6,378 Hazard Communication violations: Chemical makers and importers must evaluate the hazards of their products and develop safety data sheets and labels so that downstream clients are made aware of these hazards.

• 3,803 Respiratory Protection violations: Workers must be protected against dangerous dusts, smokes, fogs, gases, mists, sprays, vapors, and inadequate oxygen environments. Failure to do so can result in lung impairment, cancer, and other diseases. It can also lead to deaths.

• 3,321 Lockout-Tag Out violations: Employees must be protected from hazardous energy released during maintenance or service. They also must be protected from the unexpected activation of equipment and machinery.

• 3,079 Electrical Wiring Violations: Electricians, engineers, sales people, office workers, and other employees must be protected from the hazards of working directly or indirectly with electricity.

• 3,072 Ladder violations: Falls from ladders can result in traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and death. Fall accidents cause 8% of all occupational-related fatalities involving trauma.

• 2,993 Powered-Industrial Trucks violations: Tens of thousands of people are injured each year because of forklift accidents.

• 2,556 Electrical violations

• 2,364 Machine Guarding violations: Protecting workers from any part, process, or function that can injure or kill a worker.

Compared to same time period last year, the number of top 10 violations has gone up nearly 30%.

Regardless of who or what caused a work accident, most workers are entitled to Illinois workers’ compensation benefits.

OSHA Reports on Top 10 Safety Violations for 2009, Reuters.PR Newswire, October 27, 2009

Related Web Resources:

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Six Harvard University researchers were hospitalized in August after drinking coffee that was poisoned. The coffee, which came from a coffee machine in a campus building, had sodium azide in it.

The poisoned researchers, consisting of Harvard Medical School students and scientists, experienced various side effects after drinking the coffee, including low blood pressure, dizziness, ringing in the ears, and fainting. All six victims were treated at Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center.

Sodium azide, commonly used in labs as a preservative, is listed as a “potentially deadly chemical" by the federal government. All of the victims work in the medical school’s pathology department where they test mice to determine the way the immune system and diseases interact.

Harvard University is installing more security cameras and adding additional security to prevent this kind of incident from happening again. Police and health officials are trying to figure out how the coffee was poisoned. Was it a work accident or attempted murder?

Sodium Azide
According to Mallinckrodt Baker, a chemical company, sodium azide is highly toxic. Ingesting it can lead to abnormal breathing, low blood pressure, rapid heart beat, pulmonary edema, breathlessness, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, restlessness, reduced body temperature, red eyes, skin burns, lung injury, convulsions, reduced body pH, respiratory failure, collapse, brain damage, heart damage, and death.

Poisoning at Harvard, Boston Herald, October 25, 2009
Sodium Azide, Mallinckrodt Baker

Related Web Resources:
Facts About Sodium Azide, CDC

Illinois Workers' Compensation Act

Continue reading "Work Injury: Harvard Researchers Hospitalized Due to Poisoned Coffee" »

It’s only Tuesday and already several workers have been seriously injured or killed in US work accidents this week. Hopefully, their workers’ compensation benefits can help cover costs incurred from the accident and provide financial relief.

Yesterday, three workers died while in a liquid-filled hole at a waste transfer plant. Authorities say the workers appear to have been overcome by toxic fumes. Two of the people that died were a father and a son.

The hole was 18-feet deep and had about four feet of liquid in it. One worker fell into the hole. A second worker tried to rescue him. A third worker that was trying to assist the two workers also fell into the hole. Firefighters say that by the time they arrived at the work accident site, the three bodies were face down in the liquid. Authorities say there were toxic levels of hydrogen sulfide in the air. The plant is run by M & P Reali Enterprises.

Also on Monday, a 53-year-old worker died after he was run over by the tractor he was operating. Reginaldo Correa Talamantes, 53, got caught under the vehicle's rear wheel. He was pronounced dead at the work accident site.

In an unrelated work accident in another US state, foreman John Evans’s leg was crushed while he was trying to line up the milling machine. He tripped and fell in front of the machine. The machine operator did not see Evans and ran over his leg.

Sustaining a catastrophic injury in any accident is a traumatic and devastating event that not only causes great pain and injury to the victim and his or her family, but it also can dramatically impact the worker's ability to work and earn a living. This is why it is important that you receive all of the Illinois workers’ compensation benefits that you are owed.

Willows orchard worker killed in tractor accident, ChicoER.com, June 30, 2009

Worker's leg crushed in road milling accident, The Herald-Mail, June 30, 2009

3 Workers Dead at Waste Plant in Queens, NY Times, June 29, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Illinois Industrial Commission

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