Metairie Louisiana Legal Blog

While many may think that icebergs are the greatest threat to passengers and crew members on a cruise ship, this just isn't so. Some of the greatest threats to health and safety exist right on the vessel itself. Louisiana passengers may be exposed to some of these dangers, but the crew of a cruise ship may be at even greater risk. Admiralty and maritime law protects cruise ship employees who suffer injuries on navigable waters.

One recent study shows that cruise ship crew members as well as passengers may be breathing deadly toxins. The study monitored the air quality on four Carnival Cruise ships and found that, on certain sections of the vessel, the level of particulate matter was as concentrated as it is in a polluted city such as Beijing. The highest concentrations of these toxins occurred at the stern, or the back of the ship behind the smoke stacks.

Most Louisiana residents use their dominant hand for nearly everything. When a work-related accident leads to a break or fracture in that hand, life can become particularly frustrating, annoying and troublesome. In fact, some employees may not even be able to return to work until reaching a full recovery.

The hand is made up of numerous bones that create a framework that gives you the ability to do a variety of tasks such as grabbing or catching items, making a fist and picking up objects. When one of the bones in the hand breaks, all of those movements and more are compromised until it heals. One way in which many workers break one or more bones in their hands is catching themselves as they fall. In other cases, an object falls on, strikes or pinches the hand causing a break.

Most Louisiana workers perform the same tasks repeatedly while on the job. The more repetitive those actions become, the higher the risk of suffering injuries due to repetitive stress. It may take some time for at least some of those workers to connect their pain to their work.

Some Louisiana workers may not even realize that their job duties are responsible for their pain even though at least one out of every eight people suffer due to on-the-job stresses on their bodies. As it turns out, somewhere around 60 to 75 percent of the work-related injuries reported involve repetitive stress. For harbor and longshore workers, repetitive stress injuries could easily occur.

Working in any industry comes with certain risks for injury -- there's no way around it. The difference from industry to industry is often the severity of common injuries, how long it takes to recover from them and what lasting effects sufferers could endure. For instance, civilian contractors from Louisiana who work on military installations across the globe could suffer from one or more effects caused by a spinal cord injury.

Many of the body's processes require input from the spinal cord in order to happen. For instance, the body sweats when too hot and causes goosebumps when too cold in order to help regulate the temperature of the body. In many instances, people with spinal cord injuries lose these crucial abilities below the injury site, which makes it necessary to use means outside the body such as blankets or fans with temperature changes others may not even notice.