Occupational Health

Robert Fields (left) raises arm in salute during a rally in JFK Plaza yesterday celebrating the successes of the Clean and Sober program. Operated by the nonprofit Self, Inc., Clean and Sober is a drug- and alcohol-treatment program for the city's homeless. Below, psychologist Dr. Sylvester Outley, who founded Self, hugs Richard Melaragni of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, which funds Clean and Sober.

Brandywine Hospital is spending $500,000 to expand its Oaklands Health Pavilion at 460 Creamery Way in Oaklands Corporate Center, Exton, to offer sports medicine and physical therapy programs and to expand its occupational health and therapy facilities. "Several years ago we purchased the building, and we have been expanding to capture the population in that service area and also to put facilities closer to the public that uses them," said Christine Latovich, vice president of Brandywine Hospital.

Harry Grayson Smith, 78, of West Chester, a retired executive of Sun Oil Co. and former Swarthmore Borough councilman, died of gastrointestinal bleeding and respiratory failure Sunday at Crozer-Chester Medical Center. Mr. Smith retired in 1985 as a vice president of employee benefits and compensation at Sun Oil Co. in Philadelphia, where he had worked for 35 years. He was also a former director of the Center for Occupational Health at Crozer-Chester Medical Center, and served on its ethics and personnel committees and its Industrial Review Board.

In the 1990s, small companies may be hit with more federal health and safety regulations, be required to do more drug testing and have less chance to test the physical abilities of prospective employees. And without doctors or medically oriented lawyers on site, small companies can get lost in a sea of new regulations, warned physician Forrest Fisher, past president of the American College of Occupational Health. The cost of getting lost can mean huge federal fines and skyrocketing workers' compensation claims, he said.

The post office here battles rain, sleet, snow and dark of night on a regular basis. It never bargained for asbestos. But with the undaunting style made famous by the Pony Express, the clerks and carriers in the Glassboro branch didn't let the asbestos detected in their tile floor prevent mail delivery - even after the High Street office was evacuated Nov. 19. "A lot of good people put their heads together," said George Dickson, acting South...

Clarence C. Walton of Rosemont has been named the Ira and Doris Kukin Distinguished Visiting Professor of Management at Yeshiva University's Sy Syms School of Business in New York. Walton is the former president of Catholic University and the former dean of the schools of business at Columbia and Duquesne Universities. He will continue in his current position as professor of management at Villanova University. Quartessence, a young men's barbershop quartet from Delaware County Christian School, Newtown Square, recently won first place in its division at the second annual Young Men in Harmony contest held in Doylestown.

SEPTA's board chairman, Lewis F. Gould Jr., says the transit agency's top priority is to ensure safety for its workers and its riders, but he has no opinion on proposed legislation that would protect public employees in Pennsylvania from hazardous working conditions. Labor and community groups say Gould's two positions create a collision in logic. They awarded Gould an "Oscar" yesterday, accusing him of merely acting as if he cared about employee health and safety. Holding up a golden trophy similar to those presented to Hollywood stars, SEPTA union president Roger Tauss said Gould was a fitting recipient of an Oscar "for performing a role of someone who's supposed to be interested in safety.

SEPTA board chairman Lewis F. Gould Jr. says the transit agency's top priority is to ensure safety for its workers and its riders, but he has no opinion on proposed legislation that would protect public employees in Pennsylvania from hazardous working conditions. Labor and community groups say Gould's two positions create a collision in logic. They awarded Gould an "Oscar" yesterday, accusing him of merely acting as if he cared about employee health and safety. Holding up a golden trophy similar to those presented to Hollywood stars, SEPTA union president Roger Tauss said Gould was a fitting recipient of an Oscar "for performing a role of someone who's supposed to be interested in safety.

Several thousand times a day, patients receive injections, have blood drawn, or undergo intravenous transfusions within the Virtua Health Inc. hospital system. Now, a recent New Jersey law should help protect Virtua's 7,000 employees from accidental needle sticks that could lead to possible deadly infections. And what started as good public policy has very real business consequences. The New Jersey law requires hospitals to use only newer safety needles by Jan. 1, 2001. Currently, standard syringes can cost a hospital as little as 5 cents each.

THE Daily News ' editorial, "Hush, Doctors: Gas industry gags physicians" is false and shows a lack of understanding by the Daily News and Sen. Leach of Act 13's disclosure provisions. Some due diligence would have revealed that Act 13 contains one of the nation's most forward-thinking disclosure requirements. Our law, which provides for disclosure through the publicly accessible online database known as FracFocus.org, was modeled after Colorado's new law. The Colorado law was embraced by a broad spectrum of environmental groups, such as the Environmental Defense Fund.

THE Daily News ' editorial, "Hush, Doctors: Gas industry gags physicians" is false and shows a lack of understanding by the Daily News and Sen. Leach of Act 13's disclosure provisions. Some due diligence would have revealed that Act 13 contains one of the nation's most forward-thinking disclosure requirements. Our law, which provides for disclosure through the publicly accessible online database known as FracFocus.org, was modeled after Colorado's new law. The Colorado law was embraced by a broad spectrum of environmental groups, such as the Environmental Defense Fund.

Several thousand times a day, patients receive injections, have blood drawn, or undergo intravenous transfusions within the Virtua Health Inc. hospital system. Now, a recent New Jersey law should help protect Virtua's 7,000 employees from accidental needle sticks that could lead to possible deadly infections. And what started as good public policy has very real business consequences. The New Jersey law requires hospitals to use only newer safety needles by Jan. 1, 2001. Currently, standard syringes can cost a hospital as little as 5 cents each.

Harry Grayson Smith, 78, of West Chester, a retired executive of Sun Oil Co. and former Swarthmore Borough councilman, died of gastrointestinal bleeding and respiratory failure Sunday at Crozer-Chester Medical Center. Mr. Smith retired in 1985 as a vice president of employee benefits and compensation at Sun Oil Co. in Philadelphia, where he had worked for 35 years. He was also a former director of the Center for Occupational Health at Crozer-Chester Medical Center, and served on its ethics and personnel committees and its Industrial Review Board.

The post office here battles rain, sleet, snow and dark of night on a regular basis. It never bargained for asbestos. But with the undaunting style made famous by the Pony Express, the clerks and carriers in the Glassboro branch didn't let the asbestos detected in their tile floor prevent mail delivery - even after the High Street office was evacuated Nov. 19. "A lot of good people put their heads together," said George Dickson, acting South...

Robert Fields (left) raises arm in salute during a rally in JFK Plaza yesterday celebrating the successes of the Clean and Sober program. Operated by the nonprofit Self, Inc., Clean and Sober is a drug- and alcohol-treatment program for the city's homeless. Below, psychologist Dr. Sylvester Outley, who founded Self, hugs Richard Melaragni of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, which funds Clean and Sober.

Clarence C. Walton of Rosemont has been named the Ira and Doris Kukin Distinguished Visiting Professor of Management at Yeshiva University's Sy Syms School of Business in New York. Walton is the former president of Catholic University and the former dean of the schools of business at Columbia and Duquesne Universities. He will continue in his current position as professor of management at Villanova University. Quartessence, a young men's barbershop quartet from Delaware County Christian School, Newtown Square, recently won first place in its division at the second annual Young Men in Harmony contest held in Doylestown.

The 8-ton roll of newly compressed pulp is suspended between two strong steel hooks that carry it through the papermaking process. Just before the roll moves to the cutting phase, two workers lean into it and push, muscling the roll until its edge is lined up for cutting. David Spratt watches the scene, concern lining his face. Although Spratt, medical director of the Occupational Health Program at Osteopathic Medical Center, has been generally pleased with the working conditions at Container Corp.

Brandywine Hospital is spending $500,000 to expand its Oaklands Health Pavilion at 460 Creamery Way in Oaklands Corporate Center, Exton, to offer sports medicine and physical therapy programs and to expand its occupational health and therapy facilities. "Several years ago we purchased the building, and we have been expanding to capture the population in that service area and also to put facilities closer to the public that uses them," said Christine Latovich, vice president of Brandywine Hospital.

In the 1990s, small companies may be hit with more federal health and safety regulations, be required to do more drug testing and have less chance to test the physical abilities of prospective employees. And without doctors or medically oriented lawyers on site, small companies can get lost in a sea of new regulations, warned physician Forrest Fisher, past president of the American College of Occupational Health. The cost of getting lost can mean huge federal fines and skyrocketing workers' compensation claims, he said.

SEPTA's board chairman, Lewis F. Gould Jr., says the transit agency's top priority is to ensure safety for its workers and its riders, but he has no opinion on proposed legislation that would protect public employees in Pennsylvania from hazardous working conditions. Labor and community groups say Gould's two positions create a collision in logic. They awarded Gould an "Oscar" yesterday, accusing him of merely acting as if he cared about employee health and safety. Holding up a golden trophy similar to those presented to Hollywood stars, SEPTA union president Roger Tauss said Gould was a fitting recipient of an Oscar "for performing a role of someone who's supposed to be interested in safety.