Toxic Chemical Injury Attorneys

On July 29, 2010, In Workplace Accidents, By admin

NY Personal Injury Lawyers

Twenty years ago a congressional committee prepared a report titled “Chemical Dangers in the Workplace.” This report stated that “the threat posed to the health of workers by toxic substances causes an estimated 100,000 deaths and 390,000 illnesses every year.”

Not much has changed in the last 20 years. Every day new chemicals are used in new industrial processes. Most of these chemicals aren’t even tested before workers are exposed to them! You have a right to know what you are being exposed to and what their hazards are.

Under the federal Hazard Communication Standard, every chemical company that supplies a product to your employer must provide the employer with a Material Safety Data Sheet (“MSDS”). The MSDS must identify all hazardous ingredients in the product (except those that are trade secrets). This contains information regarding fire / explosion hazards, health hazards, reactivity, procedures for spills / leaks, respiratory protection and ventilation. By law, your employer must make available to you material safety data sheets for all chemicals that you encounter in your work environment.

Machine cleaning, underground mining, and surface mining, are just a few jobs where employees have increased chances of obtaining toxic chemical injuries, including:

  • Silicosis (black lung) from silica dust, which can be caused from inhaling coal dust. Coal dust exposure can be from sandblasting or rock blasting in areas where coal is located. Quarry workers and coalminers are particularly susceptible to lung disease caused by coal dust exposure. People involved in road construction may also be exposed to silica dust, when blasting through coal laden areas to construct roads.
  • Cancer and Brain Damage from creosote (used in railroad ties), naphtha (used in petrochemicals, solvents, preservatives, and equipment cleansers), spray paint (both thinner and solvent), and benzene exposure (usually found in industrial chemicals).

The above list is not all-inclusive regarding occupational diseases caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, and obviously other chemicals can cause serious injury including:

  • Asbestos
  • Lead Poisoning
  • Environmental Contamination

If you’re suffering from a toxic chemical injury, or a loved one is suffering from (or has been killed by) a toxic chemical, contact our New York lawyers today for a free confidential consultation and case evaluation. We can assist in determining the cause of injuries and the potentially responsible parties.

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Repetitive Stress Injury Attorneys

On July 22, 2010, In Workplace Accidents, By admin

NY Personal Injury Lawyers

According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, repetitive stress injuries are one of the most common work-related injuries in the United States. Most jobs require doing the same tasks one day after another. Sometimes, this repetition leads to serious stress injuries. These injuries can prevent you from doing your job and from earning income. They can result in huge medical expenses, not to mention a great deal of pain and suffering.

Victims of repetitive stress injuries (also known as repetitive motion injuries or continuous trauma work injuries) develop their affliction by performing the same movements repeatedly, exposure to constant vibration, working in cold temperatures, awkward or fixed postures, and speed or force of movement in the course of performing their job. This may cause temporary or permanent damage to the victim’s muscles, nerves, ligaments and tendons.

Repetitive stress injuries can be extremely painful, limiting a person’s ability to perform daily tasks at home and at work. There are a number of injuries that can be attributed to repetitious movement.

Here are a few of the most common repetitive stress injuries:

  • Carpal Tunnel Syndrome – swelling in the wrist, leading to pain, tingling and numbness in the hands. This wrist injury can be caused by strong hand or wrist action, such as keyboarding, scanning items at a cash register, or assembly line work.
  • Tendonitis / Tenosynovitis – inflammation of a tendon or sheath that surrounds a tendon.
  • Epicondylitis – inflammation of tendons in the elbow, sometimes called tennis elbow, this painful condition affects laborers and people in the construction trade.
  • Ganglion Cysts – lumps that form under the skin on tendons.
  • Bursitis – inflammation of any of the body’s 200 bursae that provides the cushion between tendon and bone.
  • Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (Raynaud’s Phenomenon) – disorder of the blood vessels of extremities.
  • Thoracic Outlet Syndrome – ompression of nerves in the area near the breastbone, leading to numbing, tingling and coldness in the arms. Compression can be caused by repetitive overhead movement.

Since a repetitive stress injury builds up over time, proving that it is work-related can be difficult. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing injured workers. We understand how to demonstrate the cause of repetitive stress injuries and prove that they are work-related.

Contact our NYC repetitive stress injury attorneys to schedule a free consultation today.

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New York Workplace Accident Lawyers

On January 2, 2010, In Workplace Accidents, By admin

Work-related accidents are often unexpected and violent, and can cause serious injury or even death. Workers’ compensation laws deal with the damages that can be awarded to injured employees to cover medical expenses, continuing wages, and loss of the capacity to earn. However, a workers’ compensation claim may not be your only recourse.

If you have suffered from an on-the-job injury, make sure the lawyer you hire investigates whether you also have a claim against a “third party,” such as the manufacturer of unsafe equipment, the owner of the premises or vessel where the injury occurred (if different from your employer), or against another company whose employee caused the injury. At the Goidel and Siegel lawfirm in NY, we investigate every aspect of your work-related injury.

NY Construction Injury Lawyers

Some of the most dangerous working conditions faced by employees in any industry are those faced by construction workers. There are thousands of construction sites at any given time in New York City. Unfortunately, there are also thousands of injuries to construction workers in NYC every year.

The very nature of construction work requires the handling of dangerous equipment and hazardous materials. Many laws exist requiring employers to make regular safety inspections at job sites and to provide their workers with the proper protective gear. The law also requires that employers train their workers how to safely and properly use all tools and machinery. Employers sometimes neglect to perform these mandatory steps, and as a result, construction workers are put at risk for serious and life threatening injuries.

Types of Workplace Injuries

Our New York attorneys can handle any type of workplace / construction accident injury including:

The recovery from a workplace or construction injury can be a long, painful, and costly process. If you or someone you know has been injured at a construction job site, or has been injured in any workplace accident, Goidel & Siegel are the best personal injury attorneys to call. We have been litigating workplace accidents for almost 2 decades, and are experts in getting the most compensation for your injuries.

Is important that you contact us soon as possible following a construction site / workplace accident so a detailed and thorough investigation be performed before insurance company representatives and negligent defendants have the opportunity to change the conditions that caused you to be seriously injured. We will take the steps to preserve the evidence from your construction site / workplace accident to build your case as strong as possible.

Contact our accident lawyers today.

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Study Reports High Injury Rates for Hotel Workers

On April 20, 2009, In Workplace Accidents, By admin

New York, NY – A study released on August 27, 2007 at PREMUS – the Sixth International Scientific Conference on Prevention of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders, held in Boston, highlights the differences in injury rates by gender, race/ethnicity or both. Dr. Susan Buchanan, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, presented the alarming results that raise many questions as to why certain workers are getting injured at different rates. PREMUS is a prestigious academic conference, gathering researchers from around the world with the goal of preventing work-related musculoskeletal disorders.

This first study ever on the differences in injury rates by race, ethnicity and gender of hotel workers in the United States utilized hotel employer records of work-related injuries and employee hiring list data. This is the largest study of hotel workers’ injuries ever performed in the United States aside from data that the Department of Labor collects annually.

Dr. Buchanan, along with professors from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, University of California San Francisco and Hunter College School of Health Sciences collaborated with UNITE HERE, the union of hospitality workers, on this study of over 28,000 hotel workers employed in 72 unionized hotels during the 2003-2005 time period. The hotel companies included in the study are Hilton, Hyatt, Intercontinental, Marriott and Starwood.

A sample of 35 union hotels in the “full-service” sector was selected for further study of disparities in injury rates by gender and race/ethnicity. This sample includes 16,000 workers employed annually with over 700 injuries occurring each year.

Key Findings:

Hotel Workers – New Analysis Provides Descriptive Data on Key Job Titles

The job titles included in this new injury study – room attendants, stewards/dishwashers, banquet servers and cooks/kitchen workers — represent 49% of the hotel workforce; therefore, these study findings require serious attention given the large number of workers affected in the hotel industry.

Female Workers – Highest Rates of Injuries

Disparities by gender: injury rates of 5.5% for females compared to 3.7% for males.
In job titles where both males and females are employed, female workers’ injury rates are consistently higher than males:

Stewards/Dishwashers: 10.1% vs. 5.1% in males
Cooks: 6.1% vs. 5.1% in males
Banquet Servers: 2.6% vs. 1.8% in males
Workers of Color – Higher Rates Consistently by Subgroups
Disparities by race/ethnicity: injury rates of 4.9% for nonwhites compared to 3.0% for whites, with even higher rates by demographic subgroups.

Injury rates are higher for nonwhites in 3 out of 4 job titles — housekeepers, cooks and banquet servers.
Women Workers of Color – Combined Risks Equal Highest Risks of All
The combination of increased risk by gender with the increased risk by race/ethnicity suggests an even greater increased risk for women of color:

Female Hispanic Stewards/Dishwashers: 10.0%
Female Hispanic Room Attendants: 9.5%
Female Asian Cooks: 8.9%
Female Hispanic Banquet Servers: 3.9%
Female Black Hotel Workers: 3.8%

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NY Work Zone Crashes, Accidents and Deaths

On April 17, 2009, In Construction Injury, Workplace Accidents, By admin

NYCDOT is working on state legislation to intensify penalties against drivers who are convicted of either killing or injuring construction workers in work zones. The proposed bill is intended to serve as a deterrent to driving carelessly in a work zone.

Work Zone Facts at a Glance—

The number of persons killed in motor vehicle crashes in work zones has risen from 989 in 2001 to 1,010 in 2006 (an average of 1,031 fatalities a year). Eighty-five percent of those killed in a work zone are drivers or occupants. More than 40,000 people are injured each year as a result of motor vehicle crashes in work zones.

 - 605 Crashes in NYS DOT work zones in 2005

 - 17 Fatalities in NYS DOT work zones crashes in 2005

 - 220 Injuries in NYS DOT work zone crashes in 2005

 - 8 NYS DOT workers injured in work zones crashes in 2005

 - 24 Average number of reported intrusions into work zones in New York City each year

 - In 2005, one of NYCDOT employees was killed when a driver invaded the work zone.Approximately 25% of the work zone accidents involved large trucks. In addition:

 - Approximately half of all fatal work zone crashes occurred during the day.

- More than two times as many fatal work zone crashes occurred on weekdays as on weekends.

- Fatal work zone crashes occurred most often in the summer and the fall. Read morehttp://www.nyc.gov/

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Federal Judge Blasts Use of Statistics on Race to Set Damages in Ferry Crash

On October 29, 2008, In Accident Lawyers, Legal News, Workplace Accidents, By NewSunSEO

“A Brooklyn federal judge has slammed the use of statistics showing racial differences in life expectancy to determine damages for a catastrophically injured black man.

James McMillan was rendered a quadriplegic in the 2003 crash of the New York City-operated Staten Island Ferry. Last month, Eastern District of New York Judge Jack B. Weinstein awarded McMillan damages of $18.3 million.

The city had sought to limit McMillan’s damages on a number of grounds, arguing that his past criminal records as much as his race indicated a shorter life expectancy. But Weinstein indicated during trial he would issue a written decision further explaining his reasoning on the race issue.

Issuing that decision Tuesday, Weinstein said the consideration of statistical differences in life expectancy among races in determining damages would be discriminatory and unconstitutional.

He noted that a wrongheaded insistence on immutable racial differences had been behind the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), which upheld racial segregation under the doctrine of “separate but equal.”

“Statistical reliance on ‘race’ leads to such questions as whether Plessy would have been today categorized as ‘African American’ for life expectancy purposes,” Weinstein wrote. “In a more recent example, ‘racially’ characterizing for statistical purposes in a negligence lawsuit the current Democrat Party presidential candidate, born of a ‘White’ American mother and an ‘African’ citizen of Kenya, would be considered absurd by most Americans.”

The judge also said racial statistics should be rejected on scientific grounds, and he approvingly cited a number of well-known anthropologists who regard race as a social construct rather than a biological fact.

“Reliance on ‘race’-based statistics in estimating life expectancy of individuals for purposes of calculating damages is not scientifically acceptable in our current heterogeneous population,” Weinstein wrote in McMillan v. City of New York, 03 civ. 6049.

Though the judge acknowledged a documented mortality gap between blacks and whites, he said the gap likely owed much to socioeconomic factors masked as “race.” He noted some studies indicating that blacks and whites of equivalent socioeconomic status enjoyed similar longevity.

Weinstein said that courts had increasingly moved toward race- and gender-neutral calculations of damages, and observed that racial differences were ignored by Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg in his administration of the federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

The Corporation Counsel’s Office declined to comment on Weinstein’s decision.

The 2003 ferry accident, which killed 11 people and injured dozens more, has led to a flood of litigation. Before McMillan’s award was handed down, the city had already agreed to pay more than $50 million to settle several other cases. Around 40 more cases remain open.”

(Read More At: Law.com)

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Workplace / Construction Accident Lawyers NY

On August 22, 2008, In Construction Injury, Workplace Accidents, By NewSunSEO

There are thousands of construction sites at any given time in New York City.  Unfortunately, there are also thousands of injuries to construction workers in New York every year.  The very nature of construction work requires the handling of dangerous equipment and hazardous materials. 

Construction Injuries:  Why so High?

Many laws exist requiring employers to make regular safety inspections at job sites and to provide their workers with the proper protective gear.   The law also requires that employers train their workers how to safely and properly use all tools and machinery.   Employers sometimes neglect to perform these mandatory steps, and as a result, construction workers are put at risk for serious and life threatening injuries. 

Many Types of Workplace Accidents

Construction sites are not the only workplace where injuries are common.  At Goidel & Siegel, we can handle any type of workplace accident injury, including:

  • Back and neck injuries
  • Burns
  • Construction accidents
  • Defective equipment / machinery
  • Electrocution
  • Elevator accidents
  • Falls from ladders and scaffolds
  • Industrial accidents
  • Product liability
  • Repetitive stress injuries
  • Roof crush
  • Toxic chemical injuries

The recovery from a workplace or construction injury can be a long, painful, and costly process.  If you or someone you know has been injured at a construction job site, or has been injured in any workplace accident, Goidel & Siegel are the best personal injury attorneys to call.  We have been litigating workplace accidents for almost 2 decades, and are experts in getting the most compensation for your injuries.

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Elevator Accidents in New York City : Insult to Injury

On August 6, 2008, In Accident Lawyers, Housing & Premises Accidents, Personal Injury Lawyers, Workplace Accidents, By NewSunSEO

Imagine for a moment that you’re going about a typical day in NYC.  Your mind is focused on your plans for the day and how you will fit them all into your busy schedule.   The elevator you’ve been waiting for opens, you step in and-BAM!   Your ankle throbs in pain as you struggle to stand and gain your bearings.   Finally, you realize what happened:  The elevator shaft didn’t stop level with the door, causing you to drop 10 feet when you attempted to board it.

While the above is a hypothetical scenario, unfortunately, accidents like these are all too real on New York elevators.   An estimated 27 people per year die on elevators, and thousands more are injured.  Besides misleveling problems, elevators suffer other common malfunctions that injure people regularly.    Sudden drops, for example occur when an elevator shaft lurches or plummets abruptly down, often causing neck and back injuries to its occupants.

New York City has a rich history, with many of its buildings dating back to the turn of the 20th century.  Elevators in these old buildings are aging too.  Building codes and safety features have evolved considerably in the past 100 years, but many property owners in New York have not done their part to ensure that their buildings’ elevators are safely maintained and retrofitted.

Some older elevators for example, have malfunctioning doors that close too quickly, causing crush or pinch injuries to a person’s body.   Another common problem in older elevators is that the doors can swing forward into the shaft when pressure is applied to them-an extremely dangerous situation.    However, by retrofitting older elevator doors with Z brackets and Kick stops, swinging door accidents can be virtually eliminated.    But while these two inexpensive fixes are recommended by the Elevator Advisory Council and the Buildings Department, they are not mandatory.

Many landlords have neglected to perform this simple fix, as well as other routine fixes, and as a result thousands of people continue to be injured in New York City elevators every year.   These injuries cause undue suffering to its victims, who not only have to deal with the physical pain, but the hassle of medical bills and loss of income as well.   If you have been injured in an elevator accident, it is a very good idea to contact a reputable personal injury lawyer, who can be invaluable in helping you sort out the mess caused by someone else’s negligence.  

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Worker Dies in Fall Off Scaffold in Brooklyn

On June 6, 2008, In Construction Injury, Workplace Accidents, By NewSunSEO

Police say a construction worker is dead after falling four stories off a scaffold in Brooklyn. Fifty-year-old Houssain Mosharrf fell at about 2:05 p.m. Monday. He was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Brooklyn man was working on a six-story building at 789 St. Marks Ave. There have been a spate of deadly construction accidents this year that have left more than two dozen workers dead. On Friday, a giant crane collapsed, killing two workers and injuring a third.

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NYC CRANE VICTIM ON THE MEND

On June 4, 2008, In Accident Lawyers, Construction Injury, Legal News, Workplace Accidents, By NewSunSEO
June 3, 2008
 
The construction worker whose chest was slashed open in Friday’s deadly Upper East Side crane collapse is already on his feet, family and friends say.

Alexis “Andy” Simeone, a 31-year-old carpenter injured in the Friday accident that killed two fellow hardhats, spent yesterday visiting doctors and running errands, his family said. He was discharged from the hospital Sunday.

News of Simeone’s recovery comes as questions swirl around the last inspector to sign off on the crane – and as City Hall scrambled to put the finishing touches on a proposed overhaul of construction-safety guidelines.

“He’s lucky, he’s really lucky to be alive,” Simeone’s sister Emma told The Post from Grenada, where he grew up. “He said he didn’t know what hit him.”

Simeone, a married father of a 1-year-old daughter, was working inside the building to be known as The Azure on 335 E. 91st Street when the crane collapsed, taking him with it, according to his sister.

“The puncture was on his right side. Had it been on his left side, near his heart, he would have been gone,” said Brownsville neighbor and family friend John Stafford, 51.

Yesterday, Department of Buildings inspector Patrick McGarrigle, who checked the crane a week before the accident and reported nothing amiss, declined comment outside his East Brunswick, NJ, home.

“I can’t talk to you,” he said when asked about reports the crane may have had a faulty turntable connected to the cab and shoddy welds.

Meanwhile, construction worker Houssain Mosharrf , 52, died yesterday in a four-story fall from a scaffolding at a building at 789 St. Marks Ave. in Brooklyn.

(News Article from the New York Post)

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