Whatnot At Work

Cell Phones Lower Sperm Counts

A new study links heavy cell phone use with lowered sperm counts in men.

In a study led by researchers from The Cleveland Clinic, men who used their cell phones the most had poorer sperm quality than those who used them the least.

The lowest average sperm counts seemed to be in men who had the most cell phone use (more than four hours a day); those who didn’t use cell phones seemed to have the highest.

Bring Your Worms To Work

Bring your worms to work and bring compost home for your garden. California is starting a Zero Waste Initiative to reduce waste and encourage reuse and recycling. One of those efforts involves recycling food scraps using composting and vermicomposting (using worms to compost the food scraps).

Californians throw away more than 5 million tons of food scraps each year.  That’s 16 percent of all disposed materials going into landfills from businesses, residents, and institutions such as schools and prisons. Although green material collection programs have been implemented in many cities and counties, management of food scraps provides additional opportunities to help meet the State’s diversion goals as well as provide greater uses for this resource. A suggested order for food scrap management is to (1) prevent food waste, (2) feed people, (3) convert to animal feed and/or rendering, and (4) compost.

How To Recognize A Stroke

Here's a tip for quickly recognizing a stroke victim. According to the article, time is of the essence for preventing long term damage.

1. Ask the person to smile.
2. Ask the person to raise both arms.
3. Ask the person to speak a simple sentence.

If the person has trouble doing any of the three, call 911 immediately.

Postal Worker Jailed - Urine In Coffee

Yet another coworker food tampering case. A postal worker would add a cup of his urine to the break room coffee pot and watch as his coworkers drank the coffee. The workers rented a video camera to catch him at it.

"He not only watched us drink the coffee but the majority of the shop, his own friends and fellow workers, about 20 of us all together, he would sit in the same room with people and watch them drink his sick little brew and think nothing of it," said postal worker Jene Jackson.

Shift Workers Health Risk

Keep your eyes on this possible health risk for shift workers:

Men who are employed on rotating shifts could increase their risk of prostate cancer by four times, although experts are quick to note that results are not conclusive. The study was conducted by Japanese scientists who sampled more than 14,000 workers.

Working on shifts has also been connected to a higher risk of breast and bowel cancer.

Air Marshals On The Job Injuries

Employee Retention Challenges with Federal Air Marshals due to Health and Safety issues:

Nearly half of all the federal air marshals have been injured on the job from their heavy flying schedules.

Marshals say medical staffers are quitting the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) out of frustration as hundreds develop illnesses related to their heavy flying schedules such as barotrauma, decompression sickness that causes ruptured eardrums and sinus conditions often requiring surgery.

They are also developing deep vein thrombosis, a disease attributed to long periods of sitting that causes blood clots, usually in the legs, that could lead to cardiac arrest.

The Dirtiest Jobs

The jobs with the most bacteria per square inch are:

1. Teacher
2. Accountant
3. Banker
4. Radio DJ
5. Doctor
6. Television producer
7. Consultant
8. Publicist
9. Lawyer

Teachers have 17,800 bacteria per square inch. The dirtiest spots in the office baceria-wise:

1. Telephones
2. Desks
3. keyboards
4. mice (computer)

Avoid Hospital Overcharges

Ten tips to help your employees avoid being double billed or overcharged for hospital stays. Hospitals overcharge on average $1,300.00 per hospital visit, which adds up to $10 billion dollars of overcharging per year.

"More than 90% of the hospital bills I've audited have gross overcharges," says one hospital auditor.

"I've seen $90 charged for a 70-cent I.V. How about $129 for a mucous recovery system? That's a box of Kleenex," Johnson adds. She's also seen charges for ordinary supplies, such as towels and sheets, that should be included in the room charges.

The ten tips:

1. For non-emergency stays, review your policy before going in so you know what is and is not covered when you get there.
2. Find out what is not included as part of your room charge and bring things that are not covered with you.
3. Ask for an estimate from your doctor.
4. Make sure all of your attending staff are covered by your health plan.
5. Keep a record of all the procedures that are being done on you.
6. Save the explanation of benefits (EOB) that is sent prior to the bill.
7. Never pay the bill at the hospital. Always wait until you are billed at home.
8. Compare your EOB and your bill with your record of procedures you kept.
9. Get an itemized bill from the billing department. Do not settle for misc fees or lab fees. Every state requires itemized bills.
10. Get your medical records and compare against your itemized bill to make sure the treatments you are charged for were actually performed.

You're Too Thin, No Work For You

Do thin people need protected class status?

The government of Madrid has imposed a rule that thin models cannot participate in the Madrid fashion week. The rule is based on Body Mass Index (BMI). Models with a BMI of less than 18 are too skinny for the show and cannot work. According to the article, 30% of the models were turned away. The goal of the rule is too discourage the "waif-like or heroin chic look" and to promote "an image of beauty and health."

A worthy goal, but setting an arbitrary cutoff that doesn't take into account a person's natural physique, and setting a cutoff of 18 which is considered a healthy BMI, is excessive. If they had set the cutoff at a BMI rate that was considered unhealthy or dangerous, they probably would have gotten little argument.

"I think its outrageous, I understand they want to set this tone of healthy beautiful women, but what about discrimination against the model and what about the freedom of the designer," said Gould, Elite's North America director, adding that the move could harm careers of naturally "gazelle-like" models.

According to the article, supermodels Esther Canadas and Kate Moss would both be barred from Madrid based on the ruling.

Brain Gym

Sign your employees up for this gym for the mind.

The mind gym event was organized to tackle "cognitive fitness", the concept that mental exercises can curb age-related memory loss and boost intelligence.