Los Angeles Workers' Issues and Personal Injury Blog

Most people take their hands for granted. Workers in California and elsewhere wear hard hats to protect their heads and harnesses to arrest falls, but some never pause to think about the hazards of having their hands or fingers crushed. If you are one of them, you would be wise to imagine your life without your hands. A good piece of advice, regardless of the industry in which you earn your income, is never to put your hands where you cannot see them.

Safety authorities say approximately 125,000 workers nationwide suffer caught-in or crushed-by injuries each year. This number includes all industries, from construction sites to offices and big-rig operators.

Each year, thousands of workers in California fall victim to any of the flu viruses that happen to be around. According to a spokesperson for the California Workers' Compensation Institute, no diseases or categories of illnesses are excluded from compensation. However, whether workers become ill from common flu viruses or some new virus strain that becomes a pandemic, proving it to be work-related could be difficult.

Although workers like firefighters and safety officers are automatically covered for certain diseases that are included in the list of presumptions, workers in other industries have to prove causation. This means that mere exposure to a virus is not proof enough; causation has to be shown. Therefore, an answer to the question about whether virus infections are covered depends on the specific circumstances.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has launched an investigation into a recent incident that caused the death of a worker. According to authorities, firefighters from Cal Fire and Riverside County responded to Cottonwood Dairy after receiving a call about severe workplace injuries suffered by an employee. They received the emergency call shortly before 10:45 a.m. on a recent Thursday.

First responders arrived at the scene to find a worker who had suffered critical injuries. Sadly, there was nothing they could do to save the worker's life. Upon their arrival at the scene, the victim's heart had stopped, and their report indicates that the injured worker was in full arrest. Few details were reported, except that some farm equipment crushed the worker.

Every day, thousands of workers in California suffer the consequences of musculosketal disorders, or MSDs. These types of workplace injuries can cause aggravated, strained or sprained tendons, muscles, nerves, blood vessels and discs. If left untreated, these injuries can cause long-term health problems.

Ergonomic and individual risk factors contribute to MSDs. Ergonomic MSDs are caused by tasks that require the worker to repeat the same motions for hours on end. Safety authorities say repetitive work cycles that exceed 30 seconds without breaks are considered to be highly repetitive. If those tasks require force, chances of developing MSDs are even higher, especially if the job requires the worker to maintain an awkward body posture while working, which can strain and overload joints.