Reading Room

A licensed practical nurse who suffered from preexisting pulmonary disability was permitted to recover benefits against her employer when a co-employee sprayed perfume at work. The NJ Appellate Division ruled that a licensed practical nurse was allowed to seek benefits when exposed to an employee's perfume even though the injured worker came to the employment with severe pre-existing obstructive lung disease.

The ever-increasing desire of industry to contain costs in the medical management arena, as well as to gather information about current employees and new hires, and the technological realities of the millennium are now creating new battle lines for workers over the privacy of their medical, genetic, and other personal records.

The ever increasing desire of industry to contain costs in the medical management arena, as well as to gather information about current employees and new hires, and the technological realities of the millenium are now creating new battle lines for workers over the privacy of their medical, genetic, and other personal records. Computers make it easier to store, collect, share and analyze all kinds of data. The attempt to formulate intervention in this arena has placed both federal and state governments as contenders in the management of the confrontation, which may ultimately affect the employment status of every worker in the nation.

Over the course of the last few years, the United States economy has undergone a radical change that will require the New Jersey industry to reevaluate how it conducts business. New Jersey’s robust economy reflects a national trend towards full employment, but its workers’ compensation benefits have not kept pace with other states.