Workplace injuries
$163 million spent on injured public safety employees in three New York counties
Police officers and firefighters who file injury claims in the Lower Hudson Valley often collect tax-free salaries for years while local municipalities and the state wrangle over who ultimately picks up the tab. More than 15 percent of the state’s first responders end up retiring on a state-funded disability pension. That number is even higher…
Read MoreDeadly business: Texas onshore oil and gas drilling
Despite hundreds of oil field fatalities, federal government does little to monitor or safeguard onshore workers.
Read MoreHospital visits in Eagle Ford Shale region double, triple
With drilling increasing dramatically in the Eagle Ford Shale, patients from the region with serious injuries have turned up in fast-increasing numbers at San Antonio’s top trauma hospitals.
Read MoreMaryland law presumes many cancers are job-related for firefighters
A dispute between the City of Baltimore and a firefighter-paramedic with breast cancer spotlights a high-stakes debate over a law that presumes certain cancers are related to fighting fires. Firefighters say the provisions — which can lead to awards exceeding $500,000, including medical bills — rightly reflect the fact that they can encounter dangerous fumes…
Read MoreAltercations, assaults costly problems for teachers, tax payers
Jones is one of hundreds of city educators whose violent and traumatic encounters with students have led them to seek — and often receive — compensation for mental and physical injuries, a Baltimore Sun investigation of workers’ compensation claims has found. Those claims provide a behind-the-scenes look at violence that is rarely documented in school…
Read MoreFederal government reduces fines for deadly “gas blow” incident, still no ban against practice
After six workers were killed in a massive gas explosion at the Kleen Energy plant in Middletown four years ago, federal investigators tallied hundreds of violations at the site and issued $16.6 million in penalties against more than a dozen companies — the third-largest workplace-safety fine in the nation’s history. But in the years since…
Read MoreBuried In Grain
“Nearly 180 people — including 18 teenagers — have been killed in grain-related entrapments at federally regulated facilities across 34 states since 1984, records show”
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