Quote of the day
“The problem is particularly acute in Huntington where first responders are seeing more awful things more often. One pensioner said they see more in a year than he saw his whole career. We’ve been ground zero for (the opioid epidemic) and our guys are suffering from it.”
West Virginia Del. Chad Lovejoy, lead sponsor of the bill that would provide workers’ comp for first responders’ PTSD
West Virginia House committee passes PTSD bill
West Virginia’s House Judiciary Committee passed a bill Monday that would allow firefighters, law enforcement officers, EMTs and paramedics to collect workers’ compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder. Sixteen other states have similar benefits for first responders. Herald-Dispatch
New Jersey may soon cover medial cannabis under workers’ comp
New Jersey lawmakers last week addressed two bills that could bring protections for companies that insure cannabis-related companies and also allow workers’ compensation coverage for medical cannabis. One of the bills, which cleared committee nearly unanimously, protects insurance companies and their employees from retaliation by state or local government if they engage with marijuana-related businesses, but would not require insurance companies to take on cannabis-related clients. NJ Advance Media/NJ.com
Framing business owner gets prison time for fall protection violations
The owner of a Florida framing company recently was sentenced to a 30-day federal prison sentence following the death of an employee who fell from a residential construction site. Fed-OSHA, which handed down $60,000 in civil penalties, concluded the employee was not using mandatory fall protection, and that the framing company ignored a third party warning the previous day about the lack of safety equipment. JDSupra
Surviving family sues over trench collapse
The family of a 20-year-old construction worker who was killed on a Baltimore sewer line excavation in June 2018 when the trench collapsed has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and its subcontractor. Baltimore Sun
How long can coronaviruses linger on contaminated surfaces?
It’s unknown exactly how long the novel coronavirus, a large group of viruses common among animals, can linger on contaminated surfaces and objects with the potential of infecting people, but some researchers are finding clues. CNN