Did you know about the deadliest drug?

Ok so question for you to think about and ponder on.  What is the deadliest drug on the planet?  Cocaine?  Marijuana?  Meth?  Surprisingly none of those are the deadliest, that title goes to heroin.  Heroin isn’t one you seem to hear a lot about on the news as they typically talk about cocaine, marijuana, and meth.  Currently the U.S. has the worst heroin epidemic ever all due to the fact that it can be delivered right to your front door.

Yes, delivered to your front door and you may not even be aware that you have had it delivered.  Heroin is an opiate that is very chemically similar, sometimes referred to as a chemical sibling, to opioid pain killers like OxyContin, Vicodin, and Percocet.  Heroin has gained in popularity due to the fact that it is much cheaper than those pills and can actually be smoked or snorted giving the same effects as being injected.  This helped several users to get the high without the needles and allows younger users to experiment much easier.

 

Heroin isn’t a new drug either, it’s been around since it was first discovered in 1874.  Chemists created heroin trying to find a less addictive form of morphine, but ultimately discovered heroin had twice the potency.  This lead to heroin addiction and due to the fact it’s so chemically similar to opioid pain killers has become the new drug of choice for those users.  Because doctors wrote millions of prescriptions for opioid painkillers from 1999 to 2010, thousands of Americans became addicted.  Chemists reformulated opioids to make them harder to abuse and a government crackdown on who could be prescribed the painkillers drove up the cost of the pills.

 

Typically those who use needles are deemed “hardcore junkies” while those who smoke consider themselves a more casual user and are under a false impression that they won’t be addicted, much the same way as tobacco.  Surveys show that about 80% of all heroin users started out using opioid pain killers and it’s not just some nameless homeless guys doing it.  According to Burlington, Vermont police chief Michael Schirling “We’ve got soccer moms on heroin.  This is a completely underground, behind-closed-doors phenomenon.”

The DEA’s National Drug Threat Assessment has reported that 9% of all law enforcement agencies deemed heroin as highly available in 2007 and by 2013 the availability skyrocketed to 40%.  The northeast area of the states including Vermont, New York, and New Jersey the percentages jumped even higher.  The governor of Vermont, Peter Shumlin, dedicated nearly all of his State of the State Address to the issue of heroin and addiction.  Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick declared a public health emergency in March 2014 due to the spike of deaths from heroin.

Despite the best attempts to try and reign in this deadly drug, overdose deaths aren’t uncommon, especially when they combine cocaine with the heroin and make a speedball.  For users who aren’t getting that high from heroin, due to the fact that they have developed a tolerance, they turn to mixing the drug with cocaine to get the high they desire.  Combining drugs is a very chancy thing to do and the results are typically deadly.

Pre Employment Physicals

You go to a job interview for a company and everything seems to be going well, then at the end of the interview they tell you that they need one more thing before you can start the job. Your potential employer says all we need is a pre-employment physical.  “A what?” you think as you have never had to have one of these in the past. 

Pre-employment physicals are becoming more common among employers who have a higher rate of accidents and worker’s compensation claims. They can help determine if you are capable of doing the job.  Pre-employment physicals typically have you doing tasks that are similar to the job you will do for the company, as well as a musculoskeletal evaluation by a doctor.  These physicals can’t be completed unless a job offer has been made, to make sure that you aren’t discriminated against for any disabilities you may have.

When you go to the physical you can expect the typical information to be gathered such as height, weight, and blood pressure.  You may also be asked a few questions about previous injuries and accidents.  A yes response to these questions doesn’t necessarily exclude you from the job you are being offered, they just allow the technicians and doctor performing the physical to know if there are any limitations to what you can do during the testing.  When you answer these questions, you do have certain rights on what questions are asked by law.  We can’t ask you any questions related to family genetic diseases, i.e. heart conditions, but we can ask about your own conditions to ensure that you aren’t injured during testing.

The job you applied for determines the tasks you will need to complete.  Pre-employment physicals can cover every job from the janitorial staff to the CEO of the company.  When you go to a physical you may see dig pits, shelving units, even weights for all of the different tasks.  If you had a friend who was hired by the same company but for a different position they would do a completely different set of tasks.

Pre-employment physicals can also protect you as an employee. During the physical the doctor will get baseline measurements of how your body is physically. This includes measures of range of motion, muscle strength, joint integrity as well as reflexes. If your body has no problems during the exam then say six months down the road you are involved in an accident on the job, we will be able to refer back to how your body was before you started the job.

So if you ever have an employer who is offering you a job and asks you to complete a pre-employment physical before starting, don’t stress about it.  The employer does like you but just wants to make sure that you are completely qualified before you start the job.  With a little knowledge of what’s happening before you start, you should have no problems completing the physical and starting a new career.

Hearing issues?

A man feared his wife wasn't hearing as well as she used to and he thought she might need a hearing aid. Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family doctor to discuss the problem. The Doctor told him there is a simple informal test the husband could perform to give the doctor a better idea about her hearing loss.
Here's what you do," said the Doctor, "stand about 40 feet away from her, and in a normal conversational speaking tone see if she hears you. If not, go to 30 feet, then 20 feet, and so on until you get a response."
That evening, the wife was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he was in the den. He says to himself, "I'm about 40 feet away, let's see what happens."
Then in a normal tone he asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?"
No response.
So the husband moves closer to the kitchen, about 30 feet from his wife and repeats, "Honey, what's for dinner?"
Still, no response.
Next he moves into the dining room where he is about 20 feet from his wife and asks, "Honey, what's for dinner?"
Again he gets no response.
So, he walks up to the kitchen door, about 10 feet away.. "Honey, what's for dinner?"
Again there is no response.
So he walks right up behind her... "Honey, what's for dinner?"
"Ralph, for THE FIFTH time, CHICKEN!!"
- Don Gomolski

Ok this is a joke that has been around for a little while, but it begs the question: Does this sound like you or your significant other?  Maybe you have someone in your family it sounds like. 

Our hearing is a very important part of who we are and how we handle daily things.  Below is a list of several questions that, if you can answer yes to, you should follow up with your doctor and have your hearing tested.  Even if you can’t answer yes to them, having a yearly hearing checkup is still a good thing as it can prevent any issues later on down the road.

   
      1)      Do people seem to mumble or speak softer than they used to?

      2)      Is it difficult to follow a conversation when in a crowd?

      3)      Does background noise, like music or TV, bother you when you are speaking with someone?

      4)      How high is the volume on your radio or TV?  Are you often asked to “turn it down”?

      5)      Are you finding yourself asking people to repeat themselves?

      6)      Is speaking on a telephone especially hard for you?  Do you find yourself using the speaker phone option?

      7)      Is it difficult for you to find an object based on the noise it makes, i.e. a ringing phone or alarm clock?

      8)      Has someone told you to get your hearing checked?

 These are just a few basic questions to ask yourself, but your doctor will ask many more.  As we age we do lose some of our hearing as part of the aging process, but if you have ever worked in a high noise job, i.e. construction or railroads, that process is typically sped up some.  Take the time to see a doctor and have them do a hearing test. 

Why Occupational Health and Safety?

 

I’m sure we have all heard of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) but have you ever wondered why we have it and why it was started?  Ok, well I know, honestly, you probably haven’t but I wanted to delve into this topic, so that you know more about what we do, and why we do it for clients.

OSHA was given a federal start on December 29, 1970 by President Nixon after a 3 year struggle with the legislative offices started by President Johnson.  Even though it was given this federal start in 1970, occupational health and safety had been an ongoing battle for over 100 years.

 In 1877, Massachusetts was the first state to pass a state level factory inspection law to help protect the workers against the large number of grisly deaths that were occurring every year.  Nine other states soon followed, but there was so many loopholes with the laws that they weren’t always effective.  Some businesses left states that were too strict for ones that weren’t, and often times inspectors weren’t even allowed in to the business due to politics. 

In 1907, a study was conducted in Alleghany County, PA that found that workers who were injured or killed on the job bore the economic impact of accidents, even though most accidents were the fault of the businesses.  In 1908, thanks in part to that study, Congress passed the first worker’s compensation act for federal employees (with the support of President Teddy Roosevelt).  By 1911, Wisconsin passed the first state worker’s compensation program and by 1921 the rest of the states followed suit.  Still, there was very little incentive for employers to participate as the rates for the insurance were not all that much lower for safe companies versus unsafe ones.

It wasn’t until 1933 that things finally started to move in the right direction for OSHA.  In that year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected the first woman cabinet member as Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins.  Frances had extensive knowledge in occupational health and safety working with the state of New York.  In 1934, she created the Bureau of Labor standards to make workplaces “as safe as science and law can make them.”  This bureau was followed by the Social Security Act of 1935, the Walsh-Haley Public Contracts Act of 1936, and the Fair Labors Standard Act of 1938.

Now of course there were new rules and laws to enforce, and by the 1960’s there were many companies that opposed what was happening. More studies were being done that showed the health of workers still was not being taken into consideration.  States felt they were being undermined by the federal authorities during inspections.  By 1969, President Nixon presented his version of a job safety and health proposal to Congress.  His proposal set a 5 person board to oversee the job safety and health standards being set.  Of course there were some supporters of the proposal, and some against it, but by 1970 the version we know now was agreed on, and set into motion. Since then, government officials have made changes according to the standards set in each individual section, as brought about by further understanding and knowledge of the industries they effect. Workers safety is now more than talk.

It took almost 100 years from the first idea that workers needed to be protected to the time when an actual solution was finally found, but with that first idea we have come a long way.  People from every job type; nurses, manufacturers, and steel workers, have the knowledge that the companies they work for will help protect them from needless accidents that used to claim the lives of so many.  As with any law there is always going to be updates and changes, but it’s good to know we have avenues to take for our safety along with those we work with.