Massachusetts Workers Compensation Lawyers Blog

For many people, when you hear about workplace injuries, your mind likely goes to physical or labor-intensive industries such as construction, mining or industrial work. The fact, however, is that a workplace injury can happen anywhere and to anyone. Workplace injuries can even happen in professional positions at a dental office.

According to a recent article in Dental Economics, one of the primary causes of injury in a dental office is needle wounds. Our Boston workers’ compensation attorneys urge everyone working in a dentist office to be aware of the risk of needle sticks. We also urge dentists and care providers to ensure they have created a safe working environment for their employees.

The Dangers of Needle Injuries in Dental Offices
Dentists typically have multiple people in the office who work with patients, including the dentist themselves as well as hygienists and dental assistants. Many of those who work with patients are asked to use needles to provide injections to patients. For example, most patients who have fillings put into their teeth have a local anesthetic administered via an injection to the mouth.

Unfortunately, many of those who work in dental offices are finding themselves facing injury as a result of the widespread use of needles and other sharp tools. The full number of people who suffer a workplace injury due to a needle stick or sharp object in a dentist office is not known because there is no surveillance system that gathers data from private practice dental offices. However, according to Dental Economics, CDC estimates indicate that hospital healthcare workers in the aggregate suffer 385,000 needle stick injuries or other related injuries from sharp objects.

This means that each day an estimated 1,000 healthcare workers in hospitals experience an injury due to a sharp object such as a needle. Unfortunately, these workers are potentially at risk of developing hepatitis B or C as well as HIV, herpes, tuberculosis or malaria. The CDC also indicates that as many as 20 other pathogens can also be transmitted via a needle stick or injury from a sharp medical/dental tool.

Protecting Employees from Work Injuries in Dental Offices
With so many work injuries in dental offices and healthcare settings caused by needle sticks, it is very important that employers in dentists’ office do everything possible to help protect employees.

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has established rules and procedures including Bloodborne Pathogens Standards intended to minimize exposure to disease through a needle stick. Dental offices need to follow OSHA guidelines and should ensure they have step-by-step instrument management systems and instrument processing protocols. Dental offices should also:

• Allow sufficient time for staff to see patients.
• Refrain from transporting loose instruments on trays throughout the office by using cassettes instead. Collisions with a worker carrying sharp instruments may be responsible for as many as 10 percent of needle stick injuries.
• Use heavy-duty utility gloves to handle contaminated loose instruments instead of patient exam gloves.

When proper protocol is not followed, this increases the risk of workers in a dental office experiencing a needle stick and potentially becoming serious ill as a result. If an employee of a dental office does become ill as a result of exposure to toxins or disease at work, the employee may be able to make a workers’ compensation claim to obtain payment of medical costs and lost wages as well as disability or death benefits.
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According to My Fox Boston, a 32-year-old man died on Christmas Eve as a result of a tree trimming accident. The man died while performing commercial work at a private home after the limb of the tree he was working on gave way. The man tumbled fifteen feet to the ground below and the tree limb subsequently landed on him. Although he was taken to the hospital, the man was pronounced dead.

This tree trimming accident is a very important reminder that all workers are at risk of being injured when engaged in the dangerous task of trimming trees. Our Watertown workers’ compensation attorneys are concerned that damage from recent storms has made tree trimming even more dangerous and we urge every commercial arborist to exercise extreme caution when trimming trees.

Tips for Safe Tree Trimming
The need for tree trimming has risen due to several recent storms and homeowners are strongly advised to hire professionals for tree trimming to avoid the risk of serious injury. Workers who work as professional arborists or who work in the field of landscaping or maintenance all may be asked to trim trees over the winter.

For those who trim trees as part of their job, it is very important to take safety precautions to avoid being injured by a fall, by the tree limbs, by electrical wire near to the tree, or by the tools and saws used in the tree trimming process.

To help you stay safe, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has provided a number of tree trimming trips. According to OSHA:

• You should contact utility companies prior to starting work and request that they either ground, shield or de-energize power lines prior to tree trimming.
• You should always make sure you leave at least minimum clearance when you are working around energized power lines in order to avoid getting too close.
• You should avoid trimming trees in bad weather including snow and rain.
• You should look carefully around your work area prior to beginning the process of trimming the trees and you should eliminate any potential hazards.
• You should only use equipment that has been properly maintained and you should only use equipment that you have been fully trained to use.
• You should wear safety goggles, a hard hat and other appropriate safety gear during the tree trimming.
• You should always assess the direction that the tree is leaning and determine the felling direction prior to cutting the tree.
• You should calculate carefully the amount of hinge wood to leave in order to guide the tree when it is falling.
• You should carefully inspect the tree before climbing to make sure it is sufficiently stable.
• You should put away your tools when climbing a tree so your hands are free and you should always remain alert and focused on a falling tree without looking away.

If workers follow these tips, hopefully another tree trimming accident can be avoided. Employers, too, should monitor and train their employees. If an employee is hurt while performing work on tree trimming as part of his job, then the employee may collect workers’ compensation from the employer.
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Last month, our Quincy workers’ compensation lawyers discussed the Top 10 Work Accidents in 2012. These work accidents caused thousands of lives to be lost and resulted in as many as 15 workers per day going to work in the morning and not coming home safely at the end of their shift.

Understanding the top causes of workplace accidents is absolutely imperative in order to work towards better prevention efforts. To encourage employers to implement safety policies and to encourage workers to use extra caution to avoid some common risks, our workers’ compensation attorneys are discussing some of the top workplace accidents in greater detail. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the risks of electrical injury.

The Dangers of Electrocution and Electrical Burns at Work
Electrocution refers to death caused by an electrical shock. The body is a conductor of electricity and if you are exposed to too much electricity, it can stop your heart, damage your cells and cause serious burns. Unfortunately, despite the serious dangers associated with electrocution, employers still wracked up more than 1,330 violations of electrical safety requirements in 2012.

OSHA imposes a number of different requirements when it comes to electrical safety. In 29 CFR 1926.416(a)(1), for example, OSHA mandates that employees all must have appropriate protective gear when they are working near to any electrical power circuits.

Despite the OSHA regulations intended to keep workers safe, electrocution injuries happen all-too-often. These injuries can happen in a variety of different types of work settings but OSHA reports that there are certain common causes of electrocution at work. According to OSHA:

• Workers suffer electrocution most often when working with overhead power lines. Coming into contact with electrical current from overhead lines accounted for 42% of workplace related deaths due to electrical exposure.
• The second most common cause of electrocution in the workplace is the workers’ failure to properly de-energize electrical devices prior to starting work.
• The third most common cause of workplace electrocutions is closely related to the second cause. In this case, workers don’t fail to properly de-energize the devices but they instead mistakenly come into contact with devices they thought were de-energized.
• Workers coming into contact with these or other electrical sources need to be especially careful to avoid the risks presented by working closely with electricity. Workers also need to remember that any employee is technically vulnerable to suffering an electrical injury. In fact, a full 36 percent of non-fatal injuries related to electrical exposure at work resulted from contact with the electrical current feeding a tool or light fixture.

Both workers and employers, therefore, need to be aware of the dangers that can come with electrical exposure. Employers should have clear-cut safety guidelines and procedures in place, including guidelines about de-energizing electrical devices. Workers need to follow employer safety rules and also take extra care in situations where exposure to electrical current is a possibility.
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On October 24, we wrote about the Top 10 Work Accidents in 2012. Problems faced by workers leading to accidents included a number of different health and safety violations, including inadequate fall protection, communication problems, inadequate respiratory protection and dangerous scaffolding, among other issues.

Understanding each of these workplace risks is essential for workers and employers. By taking a look at top causes of injuries, employers can institute policies and safety procedures to hopefully help to reduce the number of workplace deaths that are occurring. Likewise, workers can be aware of the dangers they face and exercise extra caution.

To help both workers’ and employees better understand the risks in the workplace, our Quincy workers’ compensation lawyers will be taking a closer look at some of the top hazards workers face. Since there were close to 7,500 safety violations related to fall protection in 2012, we’ll start by taking a look at falls.

The Workplace Dangers of Falls
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a number of worker protection laws in place that are designed to make workplaces safer. Among the requirements set forth by OSHA are those found in 29 CFR 1926 Subpart M . This federal law imposes a requirement that employers provide a guardrail, safety net or personal fall arrest system when workers are in an environment where they could fall six feet or more.

Unfortunately, despite OSHA’s regulations, falls still occur frequently and are a major source of worker injuries. In fact, according to the 2011 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index:

• Falls onto the same level and falls onto a lower level were both on the top 10 list of disabling injuries in 2009.
• Falls on the same level accounted for 15.8% of the workplace injuries that were considered disabling in 2009. Falls on the same level are situations where a worker trips or otherwise takes a tumble but does so without falling from a great height.
• The costs of treatment and lost productivity for falls on the same level was equal to $7.94 billion in 2009.
• Falls onto a lower level, such as falls from scaffolding to the ground or falls down a hole or embankment, accounted for 10.7 percent of disabling workplace injuries that workers suffered in 2009.
• Falls onto a lower level resulted in costs of $5.35 billion in 2009.

These statistics reveal just how many workers are affected by falls in the workplace each year. While there may be nothing to do to prevent some of these falls, workers and employers can take a number of steps including:

• Cleaning up all wet services immediately to avoid a potential slip-and-fall.
• Keeping workplaces clean and free of debris and other items that could get in the way of a worker or increase the fall risk
• Provide assistance in reaching items on high shelves or avoid storing items in areas where some workers have to strain to reach

Employers should also have safety policies and requirements in place related to fall protection gear in order to help workers to stay safe.
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On March 25, 1911, a horrific tragedy occurred in New York City that resulted in the fourth highest number of deaths from an industrial accident in the history of the United States. This tragedy, which resulted in 146 workplace deaths, was called the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and it was the catalyst that set in motion many worker protection efforts. Many of the worker protection laws in place today can be indirectly tied back to the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that occurred more than 100 years ago.

In today’s modern world where workers now have many legal rights, it may seem unthinkable that such a tragedy could occur again. Sadly, however, such a tragedy did happen recently. The only difference is, this tragedy happened in a clothing factory in Bangladesh.

Our Quincy workers’ compensation lawyers want to make sure workers and employers are aware of the tragedy in Bangladesh that occurred this November. The fire in the clothing factory serves as an important reminder of how essential worker protection laws are in the United States and it illustrates the tragedies that can result when employers ignore the safety of their workers in favor of profits.

The Fire in Bangladesh
According to the Washington Post, a terrible fire broke out in late November in a Bangladesh clothing factory. The factory had no emergency exits and the doors to the factory were locked so the workers were unable to escape the building. As a result, nearly 100 workers died in the blaze and many were so badly burned that their bodies could not be identified.

The particulars of the fire, according to the Post, were very similar to those in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire that jump-started the worker rights movement. In the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the doors to the factory were also kept locked in an effort to prevent break-ins and theft. The locked doors made it impossible for workers to get out, causing many to burn to death and others to jump to their death from the eighth, ninth and tenth floors where they were working.

Today, such a situation would hopefully not happen in America because workers are better protected and employers held accountable for their actions. The fire, however, was not simply one in a distant country operated by people far removed from the U.S. The factory supplies clothing to many retailers including Wal-Mart.

Although Wal-Mart has indicated that the factory had received a bad report for its fire safety provisions and was no longer authorized to make its clothing, the fact remains that a Wal-Mart label, Faded-Glory, was found at the fire site. Apparently, according to Wal-Mart, someone on its supply chain subcontracted to the factory.

Learning from the Tragedy
Regardless of the extent of Wal-Mart’s responsibility, the tragic fire in Bangladesh teaches many important lessons. The first is that worker protection laws and the focus on worker rights in the United States are absolutely essential. In foreign countries without worker protection laws, horror stories abound, including not just the tragic story of this most recent fire but also numerous other reports of terrible labor conditions including stories of the horrific working conditions in Apple factories in China.

In these foreign countries, many major U.S. corporations have shown that they will try to get away with providing poor treatment to workers unless the laws mandate otherwise. U.S. worker protection laws, therefore, need to be tightly enforced and any attempt to curtail those laws should be vigorously opposed.

Other lessons to take away from the tragic fire include a reminder to consumers that low prices can come at a very large cost. When doing business with companies, consumers have the power to stand up and say no to buying from those who exploit and endanger their workers.
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On November 23, 2012, a natural gas explosion occurred in Springfield Massachusetts, a large city about 90 miles West of Boston. The explosion caused more than 20 injuries. Located in the entertainment district, 42 nearby buildings were damaged. Reports attribute the disaster to a natural gas worker who was responding to a report of a leak; however the gas company involved in the explosion indicated that the employee had followed proper protocol and procedure.

The explosion caused injury to firefighters, police officers, a city employee, gas workers and civilians. Our Boston workers’ compensation lawyers urge utility workers who are injured to understand their legal rights. This gas explosion illustrates the grave dangers that utility line workers face when called to respond to gas leaks. Workers injured in this recent explosion or other natural gas incidents need to be aware that their employers have certain obligations.

The Risks of a Natural Gas Explosion
Natural gas is a highly combustible, flammable gas and workers who are called to respond to gas leaks face significant injury risks. The recent Springfield explosion illustrates clearly the devastation that can occur when there is a natural gas accident. One WDHD local news story reported that the explosion blew out windows within a three-block radius of the explosion, and that the force of the explosion caused irreparable damage to at least three buildings. According to the news article, a witness compared the devastation to the effects of a hurricane.

With such a volatile gas, utility companies need to take great precautions when workers are sent to work on gas lines. The utility company is alleging that precautions were taken and that protocol was followed. It illustrates the fact that an accident with a natural gas line disaster can happen at any time.

How the Accident Happened
On Monday morning, USA Today provided more insight into how the incident occurred. According to Columbia Gas Co., a utility worker had responded to calls of a gas leak. The worker followed older markings on a sidewalk that were supposed to indicate where the gas line was located. He was working an ordinary distance from where the line was supposed to be, based on the markings available, and he used a metal tool intended to locate the source of the leak.

Unfortunately, the markings did not correctly indicate where the gas line was located and the tool accidentally punctured the high-pressure gas pipeline. Because of the puncture, a flood of natural gas built up inside of a building where a strip club was located. The gas came into contact with an ignition source and and the blast occurred. The employee fortunately responded in a timely manner, ordering an evacuation of the building and potentially saving many lives.

The Rights of Workers Injured in a Natural Gas Explosion
This recent Springfield natural gas explosion reminds us that utility workers have a great risk of being in the danger zone of a natural gas explosion. With an aging infrastructure in many cities, these natural gas explosions may become an ever-more present risk.

Utility companies need to take precautions whenever possible to protect their workers and the lives of people living near gas lines. When an accident does occur, employers are responsible to employees for their losses and employees can make workers’ compensation claims to recover damages including full coverage for medical costs arising out of the explosion.
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