“…Harder to explain is the trauma affecting travel for me now. I travel a lot for work, and every time I stay at a hotel I just get filled with anxiety…”
“…Brumfield claims that on the second day of her stay at the hotel in Oct. 2012 a manager said an inspection of her room was needed after the bloodsucking Cimex Lectularius insects were found next door…”
A tennis coach was forced to cut off her waist-length dreadlocks after finding bedbugs in her suburban Chicago hotel room, a lawsuit claims.
Donna Brumfield alleges she had to hack off the cherished mane she’d been growing for 13 years after the creepy critters set up home on her head.
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Filed under Guest Issues, Health, Liability, Maintenance, Management And Ownership
“…Fireplaces, boilers, water heaters, pool-heating equipment, gas-powered tools, barbecues and cooking equipment are the most common types of fossil-fuel-burning equipment found in hotels,†said Todd Seiders, director of risk management at Petra Risk Solutions….” 
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Filed under Claims, Guest Issues, Health, Liability, Maintenance, Pool And Spa, Training
“…This lack of oversight means no one is keeping tabs on parasailing operators to make sure ropes that are damaged by sun and saltwater are replaced,” said Chalik who has spent years pushing for reform.
 “Parasailing should be a fun and safe activity, but parasailing companies that cut corners or disregard the safety of their customers can turn the popular beachside pastime into a dangerous and even deadly trip…”
PANAMA CITY, FL and ROANOKE, IN–(Marketwired – January 23, 2014) -Â The family of an Indiana teenage girl critically injured in a horrific parasailing accident last summer in Panama City, Fla. has filed a negligence lawsuit against the parasailing company, its owner and the hotel that operated the excursions.
On July 1, 2013, 17-year-old Alexis Fairchild of Huntington, Ind., and her friend Sidney Good of Roanoke, Ind., went up in tandem when strong winds snapped their parasail free from its boat below. Witnesses watched in horror as the girls were flung across the shoreline, smashed into a nearby condo rooftop and were dragged into a power line, before plunging into cars parked below.
“Aquatic Adventures Management Group, which operated Why Knot Parasail, not only ignored the fact that weather conditions had deteriorated, but failed to operate the boat a safe distance from shore,” said attorney Deborah Chalik, partner at The Law Offices of Chalik and Chalik, who filed the suit on in Bay County, Fla. on behalf of Alexis’ parents Michael and Angelia Fairchild. Chalik and Chalik has successfully represented a number of cases regarding parasailing accidents.
For the original article:Â http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/florida-parasailing-victim-sidney-good-breaks-silence-article-1.1587594
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January 23, 2014 · 8:41 am“…there has been an increase in these lawsuits over the years, with some lawyers targeting small businesses for everyday exposures, like 
alcohol or cigarette smoke outside a bar…Proposition 65 suits have helped make California the most litigious state in the union, and those lawsuits disproportionately affect small businesses…mostly small businesse paid about $22.5 million in Prop 65 settlements in 2012 alone…For virtually all environmental law in the U.S., it’s the government’s responsibility to go after businesses or products that are hurting consumers… But Proposition 65 doesn’t work like that. The state just puts out a list of chemicals that might hurt you. The responsibility is on businesses to warn consumers, and on consumers to sue if they don’t…”
“…In the amendment to the law passed in 2013, small business owners faced with a lawsuit now have a two-week grace period to comply…”
All over California, signs in restaurants, parking garages and other businesses warn that you could be exposed to chemicals that can cause cancer. The disclosure is mandated by 1986 state law. If a company fails to warn consumers, it can be sued.
But a lot has changed since the law was passed: The list of toxic chemicals is longer and the lawsuits are more prolific. In October, Gov. Jerry Brown signed an amendment to ease the burden on businesses.
For more:Â http://www.npr.org/2014/01/05/259925903/calif-toxin-law-warns-consumers-but-can-burden-businesses
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Filed under Food Illnesses, Guest Issues, Health, Liability, Risk Management
“…Done correctly, a (restaurant) cook leaves the line, washes his hands, enters a walk-in and dons a clean apron and gloves. He then assembles the 
pizza on a manufactured crust using tongs and a ladle set aside for that item. Once baked, the pizza is cut with a specific knife on a clean cutting board…He recently had his third-party toppings maker rework its recipes to ensure they were gluten-free…”
Many restaurant chains are instituting rigorous policies for preparing and serving gluten-free offerings as awareness of gluten allergies and intolerance rises.
And while several operators said only about 1 percent to 3 percent of customers request gluten-free items, all insisted that taking extra effort to make such foods safely is good for business — and will keep them in compliance with upcoming mandates from the Food and Drug Administration.
At 60-unit Costa Vida, gluten-free corn tortillas are cooked first thing in morning so the comal can be sanitized and readied for flour tortillas. Corn tortillas are then stored in a closed container and opened only when necessary.
For more: http://nrn.com/health-amp-nutrition/restaurants-tighten-gluten-free-operations
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“…For the chicken study, EHS-Net researchers interviewed 448 restaurant managers. They found that many were not following FDA guidance 
about preventing cross-contamination and cooking chicken properly and that managers “lacked basic food safety knowledge about chicken”…40% of managers said they never, rarely, or only occasionally designated certain cutting boards exclusively for raw meat, and more than 50% said that thermometers were not used to determine the final cooking temperature of chicken. Further, only 43% of managers knew the recommended final cooking temperature…”
A set of studies released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its partners points to widespread holes in restaurant food safety systems, such as risky handling of ground beef and chicken and too-warm shipping temperatures for leafy greens.
Among the key findings, according to the study and a CDC summary:
At the same time, the CDC announced plans for a new surveillance system designed to help state and local health departments identify underlying factors that contribute to foodborne disease outbreaks in restaurants and other food service venues.
The research findings, published this week in the Journal of Food Protection, deal with the handling of ground beef, chicken, and leafy greens and with sick food workers.
For more:Â http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2013/12/cdc-finds-holes-restaurant-food-safety-systems
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p1202-food-safety-tools.html
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[vimeo http://vimeo.com/68627105]
Petra Risk Solutions’ Director Of Risk Management, Todd Seiders, CLSD , offers a P3 Hospitality Risk Update – ‘Globally Harmonized System (GHS)’.
P3 (Petra Plus Process) is the Risk Management Division of Petra Risk Solutions – America’s largest independent insurance brokerage devoted exclusively to the hospitality marketplace.
For more information on Petra and P3 visit petrarisksolutions.com or call 800.466.8951.
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Filed under Guest Issues, Health, Injuries, Insurance, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Training
