Breathing dust, fumes, and other toxic substances from burn pits, exposed  troops deployed overseas, and those who worked for government contractors abroad and other civilians, to a serious hazards. Some of the chemicals were a very toxic carcinogens and are deadly.

 

On January 2, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act establishing the World Trade Health Program and extends and expands eligibility for compensation under the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001.

Breathing dust, fumes and other and other toxic substances, exposed  troops deployed overseas, and those who worked for government contractors abroad and other civilians, to a serious hazards. 

 A recent report in Mother Jones reveals that soldiers, exposed to the dust and fumes from burn pits, coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, are reporting illness at record numbers.

Rep. Tim Bishop (NY-1) and lead cosponsor Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (NH-1) introduced the Military Personnel Toxic Exposure Registry Act. This bill build...

 CMS RASIES THRESHOLD to $25,000 FOR REVIEW CMS' April 25, 2006 Memorandum regarding WCMSAs and Revision of the Low Dollar Threshold for Medicar...

 The occurrence of severe lung disease in workers who make flavorings or use them to produce microwave popcorn has revealed an unrecognized occupational health risk. Flavorings are often complex mixtures of many chemicals [Conning 2000]. The safety of these chemicals is usually established for humans consuming small amounts in food [Pollitt 2000], not for food industry workers inhaling them

NIOSH has prepared the Worker Health Chartbook 2004 as a resource for agencies, organizations, employers, researchers, workers, and others who need to know about occupational injuries and illnesses. This concise, chart-based document consolidates information from the network of tracking systems that forms the cornerstone of injury and illness surveillance in the United States.

Scientific evidence links mold and other factors related to damp conditions in homes and buildings to asthma symptoms in some people with the chronic disorder, as well as to coughing, wheezing, and upper respiratory tract symptoms in otherwise healthy people, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. However, the available evidence does not support an association between either indoor dampness or mold and the wide range of other health complaints that have been ascribed to them, the report says. Given the frequent occurrence of moisture problems in buildings and their links to respiratory problems, excessive indoor dampness should be addressed through a broad range of public health initiatives and changes in how buildings are designed, constructed, and maintained, said the committee that wrote the report. 

In 1992, the U.S. Congress passed the Workers' Family Protection Act (Public Law 102-522, 29 U.S.C. 671), which requested that the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety And Health (NIOSH) conduct a study to "evaluate the potential for, prevalence of, and issues related to the contamination of workers' homes with hazardous chemicals and substances...transported from the workplaces of such workers."

 CANCER RISKS IN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING FACILITIES. A chipmaking trade group said on Thursday that it would sponsor a far-reaching study on cancer risks in semiconductor manufacturing facilities, after years of calls for such an effort by industry critics. 

 This Alert describes health effects that may occur because of workplace exposure to some flavorings or their ingredients, gives examples of workplace settings in which illness has occurred, and recommends steps that companies and workers should take to prevent hazardous exposures.

HEARING LOSS AMONG CARPENTERS--A carpenter uses a Skilsaw to cut wood to build a concrete form. Photo by Rick Neitzel. By age 50, two out of three carpenters have lost so much hearing from occupational noise exposure that they need hearing aids. Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are studying ways to prevent occupational hearing loss and how to teach carpenters to value good hearing .

911 COMPENSATION PROGRAM FAILS--Mount Sinai's Dr. Stephen Levin said most of his Ground Zero patients have been denied workers' compensation coverage. He called the system "dysfunctional."

CALIFORNIA MELTDOWN CONTINUES--Garamendi Takes On Workers' Comp Reforms--"Lawyers and doctors in all too many cases are abusing the system," he said. California's insurance chief, saying the Legislature's recent overhaul of the state's workers' compensation system was "inadequate," on Wednesday called for additional reforms including further cutbacks to outpatient surgical centers and a crackdown on costly litigation

Occupational exposures to respirable crystalline silica occur in a variety of industries and occupations because of its extremely common natural occurrence and the wide uses of materials and products that contain it. At least 1.7 million U.S. workers are potentially exposed to respirable crystalline silica [NIOSH 1991], and many are exposed to concentrations that exceed limits defined by current regulations and standards.

Work-Related Lung Disease Surveillance Report 2002, the latest edition of a widely used compendium of information on the occurrences of and trends in occupational respiratory diseases and exposures, is available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention=s (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). 

In 1979, CMA lawyer, Don Evans, advised CMA coordinator, J. Young, that the MCA-coordinated companies’ failure to revise the Safety Data Sheet, (SD-56) because of its deliberate and considered (but undisclosed and contrary to MCA’s own stated policies) policy not to place cancer warnings on vinyl chloride, might, predictably, be interpreted as illegal or immoral, if it were ever disclosed. 

 Workers can inadvertently carry hazardous materials home from work on their clothes, skin, hair, tools, and in their vehicles. As a result, families of these workers have been exposed to hazardous substances and have developed various health effects. Health effects have also occurred when the home and the workplace are not distinct -- such as on farms or in homes that involve cottage industries.

Her body's betrayals, in her 45 years, range from asthma to infertility, from miscarried quadruplets to malformed organs. She wears a scar across her throat like a necklace that binds her to others who have had thyroid tumors removed.