| Now, the Stick
Employers frustrated with mounting health-care costs for their workers have tried dangling a carrot to discourage bad habits such as smoking as well as behaviors that can lead to obesity, uncontrolled diabetes or high blood pressure. Now some employers are beginning to brandish a stick, docking pay, hiking insurance premiums or even banning employees from the workplace if they don't comply with off-site smoking bans. So far Midwestern companies have taken the lead; only a few Washington area employers have followed. Starting in January, Tribune Co. will require its employees, including 1,200 at the Baltimore Sun, to pay $100 a month more in insurance premiums if they or any of their covered family members smoke. .
Sound Off!
The community college calling Thanksgiving a religious holiday is a first for me. I'm in my 50s, and I've never hear it referred to as a religious holiday. It's a harvest festival, it's giving thanks, but it's not religious. Everybody's gotta try to tie everything into religion these days. Religion is actually becoming a dangerous thing. It's causing a lot of problems, a lot of grief, it's causing wars, it's causing hard feelings between people and it's causing hypocrisy. I just read the Sun-News on Nov. 20, and it was just so refreshing to see that beautiful baby being adopted. You know, he was so lucky with so many children being killed. It's just so beautiful; thank you for printing that. I just want to warn all the natives the weatherman is saying that we could get one to three inches of snow.
Homeland Security Director to educate community
It might be a first time position for Shane Stovall, director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security in Plano, but as the new chairman of the Public-Private Partnership Committee for the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), Stovall is no stranger to his new duties.Stovall, who has spent more than ten years in the field of emergency planning, will be responsible for educating the community on disasters and emergencies while working in the private sector as well as defining the public-private relationship in emergency planning."It's an honor to be appointed as chairman," Stovall said. "It's an honor to work with the community as well as private businesses."After moving around in several cities like Chicago, Houston, and Virginia, Stovall came to Plano in 1990 and graduated from Plano Senior High School.
Nurses' strike drags on in Appalachia
Jerry Blevins has stood for weeks on a picket line with his fellow nurses, thinking about his mortgage, his tearful wife, his four children. Pam Pace has been called names and listed on the "wall of shame" posted outside her hospital for crossing the picket line and continuing to work. Last week, her tires were slashed. "Someone's got to stay in here and take care of the patients," she said. It's been a stressful seven weeks for the 750 registered nurses at Appalachian Regional Healthcare, the region's largest hospital system, which has nine facilities in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. Six hundred nurses have refused to cross the picket line. Some, like Blevins, have put their livelihoods on the line since Oct. 1, saying their goal is to ensure better care for patients.
HEALTH & FITNESS: The 10 germiest places
Donna Duberg, a microbiologist and researcher with St. Louis University, recently compiled a list of the germiest places. See the complete version at: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21423163/
1. YOUR KITCHEN SINK
Kitchen sinks are dirtier than most bathrooms. The sponge and dish rags are germ motels.
Solution: Use a harsh cleaner before and after preparing meat and vegetables.
2. AIRPLANE BATHROOMS
Even the flush sprays bacteria in the air.
Solution: Close the lid before you flush; turn your back to the toilet when flushing; wash your hands thoroughly for 20 seconds; use towels to turn off the water; still use hand sanitizer or disinfecting wipes when you return to your seat.
|
