The U.S. Supreme Court decided that a workers’ compensation insurer's decision to withhold payment and seek utilization review of the reasonableness and necessity of particular medical treatments is not state action and does not subject the insurer to the Fourteenth Amendment's constraints. The plaintiffs had claimed that workers' compensation benefits are a public function, and that such review constituted a threat to the health and safety of injured workers. The National Association of Independent Insurers praised the decision claiming that "the main reason a provider would not continue treatment is that they may have some doubt about its effectiveness and whether it would withstand review." Judge Rehnquist wrote that while injured workers have a right to reasonable and necessary medical treatment, insurers cannot be "required to pay for patently unreasonable, unnecessary and even fraudulent medical care without any right, under state law, to seek reimbursement from providers.''

The nation’s largest health care union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is campaigning to introduce safe needle legislation in 19 states across the country. Encouraged by legislation passed in California which requires all health care facilities to use safer needles, the union is lobbying legislators in other states to introduce similar bills. Legislation has already been introduced in Maryland, Florida, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Montana, Indiana, Illinois and Washington.

OSHA, NIOSH and the FDA issued a joint warning to health care workers and their employers about the dangers associated with accidental breakage of glass capillary tubes when the tubes are inserted into putty for sealing and during centrifugation. These incidents can expose personnel to bloodborne pathogens such as HIV and the hepatitis B and C viruses. The broken glass fragments also may cause lacerations which exacerbate the exposure.

Researchers from the Washington-based Institute for Evaluating Health Risks found no link between cancer deaths and PCBs in a 31-year study of people who worked at General Electric plants in upstate New York. Even though many of the subjects had high levels of the chemicals in their blood, they did not have a higher-than-usual risk of dying from cancer. PCBs have been banned for more than 20 years because they are believed to cause cancer.

A study by Applied Epidemiology Inc. claims that mortality rates from liver and biliary tract cancers and connective and soft tissue cancers were significantly higher among vinyl chloride production workers employed before 1972 than in the general population. The study followed men for at least 20, and as long as 50 years after they were first employed in the vinyl chloride industry. The liver cancer rate was three times higher than expected in a study of more than 10,000 men.

The SmithKline Beecham Drug Testing Index reports that positive results from workplace drug testing in the United States have declined 65% in the past decade. Only 4.8% of the 5.7 million tests performed by SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories in 1998 were reported positive, down from 13.6% in 1988.

A new publication from NIOSH suggests practical approaches that can be taken by employers and employees to prevent workplace stress. The new NIOSH booklet offers employers, human resources personnel, and workers a practical, easy-to-read resource, with real case studies, to help them answer three critical questions: What causes job stress, is there a problem in my workplace, and if so, what can be done to find sensible, meaningful solutions?" Copies of "Stress…At Work," DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 99-101, are available by calling the NIOSH toll-free information number, (800-356-4674).

NIOSH is also warning fire departments, emergency care and health care employers and workers about an occupational risk from aluminum attachments or regulators which control the flow of oxygen from pressurized oxygen tanks or cylinders often used by emergency medical services, and in health care settings. A number of factors can contribute to the generation of a fire flash from these aluminum devices during equipment checks or routine use when the valve on the attached cylinder is opened, releasing a flow of oxygen to the regulator. The report is posted on NIOSH's World Wide Web page at www.cdc.gov/niosh/firehome.

The National Technical Information Service, the federal government's central source for the sale of scientific and technical information, recently announced the availability of a new CD-ROM containing numerous reference databases describing chemicals used in the workplace. The International Chemical Information Database provides a comprehensive, single data bank of general chemical, industrial hygiene, and safety information. Updated quarterly, ICID has over 150,000 chemical entries from more than 24 worldwide sources. The CD is available on the Internet at www.ntis.gov/fcpc.