August 2010

About three in four drug or alcohol abusers have jobs – and they don’t leave their problems at the door when they arrive at work!

According to OSHA, an effective drug-free workplace program should have five components:

1. A Drug-Free Workplace Policy. Your policy should include a stated purpose or rationale, a clear description of prohibited behaviors, and an explanation of the consequences of violating the policy
2. Supervisor Training. Have your supervisors trained in understanding the policy and its implications, recognizing and dealing with employees who have substance-related performance problems, and referring these employees to available assistance. Make supervisors responsible for monitoring employee performance, staying alert to performance problems, and enforcing the policy.
3. Employee Education. Effective education addresses company-specific details about the policy and program, together with general information about the nature of substance abuse; its impact on work, health, and personal life; and types of available assistance. You can provide education through safety meetings and training sessions, home mailings, workplace displays, brown-bag lunches, guest speakers, seminars, and new-hire orientation sessions.
4. Workplace Assistance. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) offer an alternative to dismissal and minimize the employer’s legal vulnerability by demonstrating efforts to support substance-abusing workers who need help. EAPs provide counseling and referrals, plus other services such as supervisor training and employee education. If you don’t offer these services, maintain a resource file from which employees can access information about community-based resources, treatment programs, and help lines
5. Drug Testing. The most common test is urinalysis. Other types are the breath-alcohol test, blood test, hair analysis, and saliva or sweat tests. Reasons for testing include pre-employment screenings, reasonable suspicions of use, post-accident, return-to-duty, random, and periodic tests. Private employers have latitude in implementing testing, unless they’re subject to federal regulations (for example, the U.S. Department of Transportation drug-testing rules for employees in safety-sensitive situations). Many employers use testing guidelines by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Finally, bear in mind that creating and implementing a successful drug-testing program takes time and patience!

Although Workers Comp policies go by the official name of “Workers Compensation and Employers Liability,” it’s easy to overlook the “Employers Liability’ coverage, which protects your business against liability arising from physical injury and occupational illness claims that Workers Comp doesn’t cover. The Employers Liability section resembles a Commercial General Liability (CGL) policy, defending the employer against claims and paying the employee, dependents, or others in cases of employer negligence.

Consider these types of claims:

• Action-Over: Let’s assume that Curbside Concrete’s employee is injured in an accident while driving a company mixer and sues the other driver, who then sues Curbside, arguing that a defect in its truck caused the accident. Employees who use tools are especially prone to filing claims of this type: the employee sues the manufacturer of a tool that injured them on the job. The manufacturer then counter-sues the employer for negligence in failing to supervise the employees on the safe use of its tool.
• Loss of Consortium: A seriously injured or dead employee might have a relative or spouse who sues the firm for the resulting loss of normal relations with the disabled or deceased companion. This absence can affect a son or daughter with a mother or father who can no longer fulfill the proper role of a parent, as well as someone whose spouse’s sexual function has diminished.
• Consequential Bodily Injury: A worker’s injury has an adverse on one of their relatives. For example, after Joe suffers an injury on the job, his sister must now quit her job to drive him to the occupational therapist every day.
• Dual Capacity: A firm faces a suit beyond its role as the injured worker’s employer. Mike, the building maintenance worker, is injured while installing a basketball hoop in the company gym by a drill manufactured by his employer, Dynamic Drill, Inc. He files a suit against Dynamic as creator of the tool, not as the employer. A dual capacity claim allows Mike to circumvent the prohibition under Workers Compensation law against suing his employer.

These workplace occurrences are not far-fetched. Our risk management professionals would be happy to provide a thorough review of your Workers Comp policy to make sure that you have the protection you need.

The focus on energy conservation has been making our buildings get tighter and tighter, allowing less and less air exchange. This can result in “Sick Building Syndrome,” with pollutants trapped inside the building causing such symptoms as sensory irritation of the eyes, nose, throat; neurotoxic or general health problems; skin irritation; nonspecific hypersensitivity reactions; and odor and taste sensations.

Causes include flaws in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. contaminants produced by out gassing some types of building materials, volatile organic compounds (VOC), molds, improper exhaust ventilation of ozone, light industrial chemicals used within, or fresh-air intake location /inadequate air filtration). Three major pollutants –formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene – are used in building materials, cleaning products, paint, adhesives, varnishes, and oils found in homes and workplaces throughout the nation.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive and easy way to improve indoor air quality, look no further than the common houseplant, says a study by NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) on improving indoor air quality. NASA was looking for ways to purify the air in space stations. However, the study turned out to have some down-to-earth applications: houseplants not only brighten the environment in homes and workplaces, but also have the ability to cleanse indoor air and remove harmful pollutants.

So how could a little houseplant get rid of these nasty, dangerous air contaminants when sophisticated, powerful HVAC systems can’t seem to manage the job? The answer: To survive, houseplants use a process called photosynthesis that produces food from carbon dioxide and hydrogen, converting energy from light absorbed by chlorophyll in the plant’s leaves. Carbon dioxide and hydrogen, of course, are readily available in air. Because houseplants are so good at absorbing these gases, at the same time they also absorb other gases – including harmful indoor air pollutants!

Plant photosynthesis does us another big favor by releasing a waste product that we need to survive – oxygen. So having plants around not only removes pollutants, but refreshes indoor air with regular infusions of oxygen.

The NASA/ALCA study also found that some houseplants were better than others at removing specific pollutants. For example, bamboo palm, peace lily, golden pathos, red-edged dracaena, and spider plant were good at filtering out formaldehyde. Peace lily, English ivy, and bamboo palm worked best for removing benzene from indoor air, while peace lily and bamboo palm worked well for filtering trichloroethylene.