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Hundreds of people die each year from chronic asthmatic conditions caused by air pollution at work.  Respirable silica is considered one of the most toxic.  Dust at dangerous levels is commonly found in wood mills and in wood product fabrication or manufacturing plants. Workers that inhale this poison, over a period of years, can contract […]

Welders, throughout their careers, are often more concerned with protecting their eyes than their heads.  (Not such a bad thing.)  But without trying to sound too cliché that workplace strategy is like having “a nice house, with nobody home”.  This strategy will not protect against a more serious job injury … damage to the brain. […]

During a typical work shift, many hospital staff nurses will lift 20 patients into bed and transfer 5-10 patients from a bed to a chair.  Patients typically weigh well in excess of 100 pounds, so that means a minimum of two thousand five hundred pounds is moved every day.  That’s 12,500 lbs a week, 50,000 […]

In her wildest dreams Libby never thought that wearing a simple pair of protective rubber latex gloves would cause her so much grief.  After 20 years of community hospital experience she was diagnosed with an allergy to latex that led to an unbelievable chain of medical woes befitting a tale of “Ripley’s Believe It Or […]

However, mobile/prefabricated home builders often associate their confined, restricted and airtight working conditions with the following medical symptoms: coughing, dizziness, vomiting and nosebleeds.  Unfortunately, for most workers, they don’t know that these apparently harmless annoyances can be warning signs of Formaldehyde poisoning! For years manufactured houses, that are fabricated in factories and then transported either […]

It all started with a simple sneeze, but Jose didn’t recollect someone saying Gesundheit. However, speaking only Spanish and some broken English, he would have never understood that. As it turns out, he desperately could have used that wish for good health. For fifteen years this Hispanic immigrant worked in a dust filled mill that […]

The professional look to clothing, with a crisp, classic finish is accomplished with steam, perchloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene and formaldehyde.  Steam opens up a garments’ fibers allowing these chemical solvents (used as stiffeners, wrinkle resisters, water repellents and stain dissolvers) to penetrate the fabric better.  But what’s penetrating dry cleaned clothes may also be creeping into you […]

Most carpet installers don’t realize that the suffocating odor they have been breathing, for years on the job, comes from the same hazardous chemical that morticians use to embalm dead bodies. Formaldehyde is a chemical which gives human remains a “pinkish” glow.  It’s also cited as a primary contributor to indoor air contamination.  This is […]