New York City 190 articles

New York City construction-related accidents fell by 28 percent in 2010 over the previous year, the city’s Buildings Commissioner announced. The Department of Buildings says the dramatic improvement can be attributed to increased enforcement, 25 new safety regulations, and a greater outreach to members of the construction industry. The figure is based on 157 construction accidents reported in 2010, including 4 fatal accidents. All four of the construction workers killed last year died as a result of inadequate fall protections on the job site. Despite the safety deficiencies in those company worksites, fatal on-the-job construction accidents nevertheless decreased 78 percent ... Read More

A 31-year-old New York City woman has filed a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical giant Xanodyne for heart problems she developed while taking the Darvocet her doctor prescribed to her for abdominal pain, according to the New York Post. The woman becomes one of the first people likely injured by the drug to take legal action against its manufacturer. Like many patients who have taken Darvocet and other drugs containing the active ingredient Propoxyphene, the woman began to experience an irregular heartbeat. After one trip to the hospital earlier in the year, doctors discovered that she suffered from a heart arrhythmia, ... Read More

New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MAT) drivers received a startling number of distracted driving citations so far this year, according to Department of Transportation officials. According to police records, nearly 200 MTA bus drivers were caught talking and texting on cell phones, eating, and reading behind the wheel while transporting passengers throughout the city. The drivers received summonses, and were either reprimanded, suspended, or dismissed, depending on their previous safety record, MTA officials said. The announcement was made at the 2010 Distracted Driving summit on September 21 in Washington D.C., part of an ongoing effort spearheaded by Transportation Secretary Ray ... Read More

Just as the nation’s fixation on Toyota’s sudden acceleration problem started to fade, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced it would intensify its investigations of another safety concern: sudden stalling. Drivers of Toyota Corolla and Matrix cars have filed more than a thousand complaints with NHTSA and Toyota alleging their vehicles suddenly lost power while in motion. The problem has been reported in 2005, 2006, and 2007 model year Corollas and Matrixes. In March, amidst the controversy surrounding Toyota’s widespread sudden acceleration defect, NHTSA received a letter from Toyota’s regulator manager Chris Santucci requesting a meeting with regulators to ... Read More

A recent report in the Memphis Business Journal says the relationship between Regions Financial Corp., based in Birmingham, Ala., and its investment arm, Morgan Keegan & Co., located in Memphis, Tenn., has sweetened. At a recent “Investor Day” event held in New York City, the Business Journal reports company executives talked about strengthening the relationship between the two organizations, and Regions heads included Morgan Keegan as part of the company’s “strategic future.” Last December, and as recently as March of this year, there were rumors that Regions was planning to unload the investment brokerage in order to raise capital to ... Read More

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced new rule today addressing the use of cranes and derricks in construction, replacing a decades-old standard that left construction sites throughout the country tragically unsafe. According to the Labor Department, crane and derrick accidents kill 100 people on average every year in the U.S. A single crane collapse on East 51st in Manhattan left seven people dead two years ago. Later that same year, another crane fell into an apartment building in New York’s Upper East Side, killing two workers and injuring others. The new rule published today is designed to prevent the ... Read More

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is urging the public not to purchase or consume Vita Breath, a brand of dietary supplement sold at health fairs on the Internet, because the product may contain dangerous levels of lead. To date, the FDA has received one report of a patient with lead poisoning who was taking Vita Breath and two other herbal products. Vita Breath is manufactured and marketed by American Herbal Lab Inc., of Rosemead, Calif., to “promote better health for people with asthma, and support healthy Lung Energy and respiratory.” It is indicated for use among both children and ... Read More

New York City is bracing itself for a problem that might make most non-city dwellers think “boo hoo hoo” – a looming strike of some 30,000 of the city’s residential doormen and other service workers. The Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union has been in negotiations with New York City’s Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, Inc., which represents building owners, for higher wages, but little progress has been made. The SEI union represents not only New York City’s residential doormen but porters, superintendents, elevator operators, and handymen as well. The average union worker earns on average about ... Read More

Melissa Kotlen Nagin is not a fan of the prescription drug Reglan, especially to stimulate milk production in breast feeding mothers. Nagan, a mother of three, is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and Registered Lactation Consultant who maintains an active private practice, teaches prenatal breastfeeding classes in New York City, and lectures on lactation topics at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She has assisted hundreds of women on breastfeeding issues in the past eight years. Lately, she has fielded numerous questions from her clients about how to increase milk supply. She says, “For the majority, aside from ... Read More

Another Toyota Prius that had already been serviced under the floor mat recall accelerated suddenly Wednesday when its owner, a 56-year-old New York housekeeper, was leaving a driveway. Police in the town of Harrison, New York, just north of New York City, say that the 2005 silver-gray Prius accelerated suddenly, shot across the street, and careened into a stone wall. According to police at the scene, the woman was fortunate to have escaped serious injury because damage to the car was extensive. Investigators haven’t been able to determine yet how fast the car might have been traveling when it collided ... Read More