NEW YORK, NY, June 11, 2012 (Press-News.org) It seems like every year tort reform advocates and some state lawmakers in New York try to pass legislation that would change the state's scaffold law. Unfortunately, 2012 is turning out to be no different.
A bill has been proposed that would change the protections provided to workers under the state's scaffold law, Labor Law Section 240(1). Under the current scaffold law, property owners and employers in New York bear absolute liability when construction workers are injured in accidents that involve any heights, such as scaffold, ladder and even stairway accidents.
New York's scaffold law, Labor Law Section 240(1), requires contractors and property owners to provide workers with equipment to prevent falls and injuries caused by falling objects, including scaffolding, ropes, ladders and pulleys. Employers are held strictly liable for any violation of the law.
Proposed Change to Labor Law Section 240(1)
The new bill proposes to change this by also allowing the injured workers to be held at-fault for violations of the scaffold law. Essentially the absolute liability standard would be replaced with a negligence standard that would divide liability proportionately among at-fault parties. Basically, this means that an injured worker's conduct could be factored into determining liability for the cause of the accident. True responsibility for safety would thereby be shifted to the worker.
The reality is that changing the law would eliminate the legal safety protections provided for construction workers in New York. The New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA) pointed out that until local governments start adequately protecting the safety of workers, laws like Labor Law Section 240(1) are essential to workplace safety.
The NYSTLA argues that, as one of the most effective and important workplace safety statues in the nation, the law has established "a long-standing public policy intended to protect workers." Changing it would allow for owners and construction site contractors to abuse the system, not taking the required steps to protect workers in all circumstances and possibly even forcing workers into unsafe situations or risk losing their jobs.
Reforms to the scaffold law continue to be proposed year after year, despite the fact that related workplace injuries and deaths continue to grow. Statistics compiled from the Department of Labor show that over 37 workplace deaths were reported in New York state in 2010. As long as construction workers continue to be injured, it is essential that workplace safety laws remain in place.
If you have been injured in a scaffolding or work-related accident in New York, contact an experienced workplace accident attorney to explore your legal options.
Website: http://www.tgllaw.com
Scaffolding Law Reform in New York Attempted Again
A proposal has been made to modify New York's scaffolding law. Changing the law would allow for owners or construction site contractors to abuse the system, possibly even forcing construction workers into unsafe situations or risk losing their jobs.
2012-06-11
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
MRI scans show how sleep loss affects the ability to choose proper foods
2012-06-11
DARIEN, IL – MRI scans from a study being presented today at SLEEP 2012 reveal how sleep deprivation impairs the higher-order regions in the human brain where food choices are made, possibly helping explain the link between sleep loss and obesity that previous research has uncovered.
Twenty-three healthy adults participated in two sessions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), one after a normal night's sleep and a second after a night of sleep deprivation. In both sessions, participants rated how much they wanted various food items shown to them while they ...
Brain scans show specific neuronal response to junk food when sleep-restricted
2012-06-11
DARIEN, IL – The sight of unhealthy food during a period of sleep restriction activated reward centers in the brain that were less active when participants had adequate sleep, according to a new study using brain scans to better understand the link between sleep restriction and obesity.
Researchers from St. Luke's – Roosevelt Hospital Center and Columbia University in New York performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on 25 men and women of normal weights while they looked at images of healthy and unhealthy foods. The scans were taken after five nights in ...
Updated Medical Certification Guidelines for New York CDL Holders
2012-06-11
At the end of January a new federal regulation took effect that requires all New York commercial driver's license holders (CDL) to have a medical certification in order to legally operate their vehicles.
The medical certification must be issued by a doctor on a Department of Transportation approved form, and must state that the driver is physically able to operate a commercial motor vehicle. Typically the certification will be valid for two years, but can be good for a shorter period of time depending on the driver's medical condition. Only exempt personnel, like school ...
Aspirin before heart surgery reduces the risk of post-operative acute kidney failure
2012-06-11
Paris, France: Aspirin taken for five days before a heart operation can halve the numbers of patients developing post-operative acute kidney failure, according to research presented at the European Anaesthesiology Congress in Paris today (Sunday).
Professor Jianzhong Sun (MD, PhD), professor and attending anaesthesiologist at Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, USA), told the meeting that in a study of 3,219 patients, pre-operative aspirin therapy was associated with a reduction in acute renal failure of about three in every 100 patients ...
Positive results from first human clinical trials of a first-generation artificial pancreas system
2012-06-11
WEST CHESTER, Pa., June 11, 2012 – Results from the first feasibility study of an advanced first-generation artificial pancreas system were presented today at the 72nd Annual American Diabetes Association Meeting in Philadelphia. Findings from the study indicated that the Hypoglycemia-Hyperglycemia Minimizer (HHM) System was able to automatically predict a rise and fall in blood glucose and correspondingly increase and/or decrease insulin delivery safely. The HHM System included a continuous, subcutaneous insulin pump, a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and special software ...
Quick, simple test developed to identify patients who will not respond to the painkiller tramadol
2012-06-11
Paris, France: French researchers have found a way to identify quickly the 5-10% of patients in whom the commonly used painkiller, tramadol, does not work effectively. A simple blood test can produce a result within a few hours, enabling doctors to switch a non-responding patient on to another painkiller, such as morphine, which will be able to work in these patients.
Dr Laurent Varin, an anaesthesiologist at the Caen Teaching Hospital (Caen, France), presented the findings to the European Anaesthesiology Congress in Paris today (Sunday).
Tramadol is a synthetic opioid ...
Cerebral Palsy Effects Might Be Lessened By New Drug Treatment
2012-06-11
Cerebral palsy is a lifelong disorder affecting about one out of 300 children in the United States. It characteristically affects movement control, causing muscles to stiffen or jerk. Often, people with this disorder move their limbs awkwardly, and other muscles in the body may be affected as well. Patients with cerebral palsy may also be affected cognitively. The range of severity of symptoms of cerebral palsy is variable...some people are completely dependent on others for every aspect of daily living, and may be confined to bed or wheelchairs, while others are able to ...
Studies challenge established views development of children raised by gay or lesbian parents
2012-06-11
Oxford, June 10, 2012 - Despite considerable research showing that children of same-sex parents fare just as well as children with heterosexual parents, two papers - a review of existing studies and a new study - published today in Elsevier's Social Science Research, find insufficient data to draw any definitive conclusions.
The review by Dr. Loren Marks from Louisiana State University finds that much of the science that forms the basis for the highly regarded 2005 official brief on same-sex parenting by the American Psychological Association (APA) (http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/parenting-full.pdf) ...
Researchers watch tiny living machines self-assemble
2012-06-11
Enabling bioengineers to design new molecular machines for nanotechnology applications is one of the possible outcomes of a study by University of Montreal researchers that was published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology today. The scientists have developed a new approach to visualize how proteins assemble, which may also significantly aid our understanding of diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, which are caused by errors in assembly.
"In order to survive, all creatures, from bacteria to humans, monitor and transform their environments using small protein ...
XCOR Aerospace Announces Space Expedition Corporation (SXC) As General Sales Agent For Space Tourism Flights
2012-06-11
With the Tom Sachs space-themed art exhibit, "Space Program: Mars" as a backdrop, XCOR Aerospace named Space Expedition Corporation (SXC) as the new General Sales Agent (GSA) for the XCOR owned Lynx Suborbital vehicle flying from the Mojave Air and Spaceport. SXC was previously announced as the first wet lease customer for a Lynx production vehicle with planned flights from Curacao. The GSA places the responsibility with SXC for ticket sales through the extensive network of XCOR Space Tourism Specialists and for astronaut training and relations for XCOR Lynx flights ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Walking, moving more may lower risk of cardiovascular death for women with cancer history
Intracortical neural interfaces: Advancing technologies for freely moving animals
Post-LLM era: New horizons for AI with knowledge, collaboration, and co-evolution
“Sloshing” from celestial collisions solves mystery of how galactic clusters stay hot
Children poisoned by the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, has risen in the U.S. – eight years of national data shows
USC researchers observe mice may have a form of first aid
VUMC to develop AI technology for therapeutic antibody discovery
Unlocking the hidden proteome: The role of coding circular RNA in cancer
Advancing lung cancer treatment: Understanding the differences between LUAD and LUSC
Study reveals widening heart disease disparities in the US
The role of ubiquitination in cancer stem cell regulation
New insights into LSD1: a key regulator in disease pathogenesis
Vanderbilt lung transplant establishes new record
Revolutionizing cancer treatment: targeting EZH2 for a new era of precision medicine
Metasurface technology offers a compact way to generate multiphoton entanglement
Effort seeks to increase cancer-gene testing in primary care
Acoustofluidics-based method facilitates intracellular nanoparticle delivery
Sulfur bacteria team up to break down organic substances in the seabed
Stretching spider silk makes it stronger
Earth's orbital rhythms link timing of giant eruptions and climate change
Ammonia build-up kills liver cells but can be prevented using existing drug
New technical guidelines pave the way for widespread adoption of methane-reducing feed additives in dairy and livestock
Eradivir announces Phase 2 human challenge study of EV25 in healthy adults infected with influenza
New study finds that tooth size in Otaria byronia reflects historical shifts in population abundance
nTIDE March 2025 Jobs Report: Employment rate for people with disabilities holds steady at new plateau, despite February dip
Breakthrough cardiac regeneration research offers hope for the treatment of ischemic heart failure
Fluoride in drinking water is associated with impaired childhood cognition
New composite structure boosts polypropylene’s low-temperature toughness
While most Americans strongly support civics education in schools, partisan divide on DEI policies and free speech on college campuses remains
Revolutionizing surface science: Visualization of local dielectric properties of surfaces
[Press-News.org] Scaffolding Law Reform in New York Attempted AgainA proposal has been made to modify New York's scaffolding law. Changing the law would allow for owners or construction site contractors to abuse the system, possibly even forcing construction workers into unsafe situations or risk losing their jobs.