Accident Insurance Institutions Research Articles

Kafka for the Twenty-First Century (review)

Reviewed by: Kafka for the Twenty-First Century Glenn R. Cuomo Kafka for the Twenty-First Century. Edited by Stanley Corngold and Ruth V. Gross. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2011. Pp. xii + 286. Cloth $75.00. ISBN 978-1571134820. Essays based on Roland Reuß’s, Walter Sokel’s, Ritchie Robertson’s, and John Zilcosky’s keynote presentations from the “Kafka at 125” Conference held in April 2009 constitute this impressive anthology’s core component. Their pieces, together with the other ten contributions and the co-editors’ excellent introduction, not only offer fresh, international perspectives on more than a century of Kafka’s impact on modern literature and recent revelations about his biography, original manuscripts, [End Page 670] and the context of his literary production. They also affirm the author’s continued significance in the present millennium’s altered historical context, underscoring Ruth Gross’s optimistic assessment that “Franz Kafka is alive and well in the twenty-first century” (vii). Roland Reuß’s exegesis of manuscript facsimiles from Kafka’s octavo notebooks calls into question decades of scholarship that took the published versions of Kafka’s wording for granted with respect to the three novel fragments and the many other writings that remained unpublished in his lifetime. Designating these manuscripts as “draft on the way to becoming text” (25), Reuß delves into important nuances of Kafka’s switch from pen and ink to the more tenuous medium of pencil in the octavos, and his experimentation with such “material parameters” as page layout and line length. Through careful scrutiny of Kafka’s autobiographical writing and such fiction as The Castle, Mark Harman exposes the fundamental skepticism about language that underlies Kafka’s construction of metaphors that reflect on the “inherent deceitfulness of figurative language” (57). Walter Sokel opens with a succinct definition of Nietzsche’s concept of the Dionysian that enables one to view Gregor Samsa’s metamorphosis positively, as an overcoming of Gregor’s ego and individuation, and to find significant Nietzschean analogies in “The Judgment” and “Josephine, the Singer, or the Mouse People.” Uta Denger presents another perspective on “The Judgment” in her treatment of the story’s father-son conflict as an allegory of conflict between the realist and aestheticist approaches to literature, and relates the work to Gustave Flaubert’s application of the poetic to the prosaic. Expanding upon Judith Butler’s concept of gender melancholy, Katja Garloff explores in considerable depth the erotic dimension of “A Report for an Academy” and relates the notion of “racial melancholy” to Kafka’s subversive treatment of dominant discourses on Jewish assimilation. Jacob Burnett’s provocative reading of Kafka’s The Castle introduces, among other things, Nietzsche on the death of God and Douglas Hofstader’s concept of the “strange loop,” to explain the protagonist K.’s futile striving to access the castle as the result of K.’s premodern insistence that the castle functions as a “transcendental signifier” in a modern world lacking a “grounding center.” Drawing upon Kafka’s office writings, Doreen Densky finds an intriguing affinity between the proxy roles played by Kafka’s literary figures such as The Trial’s Josef K. and the author’s own proxy function as senior legal secretary at the Workmen’s Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia in Prague. Ritchie Robertson deftly uses the concept of the “total institution” from Erving Goffmann’s 1961 sociological study Asylums to elucidate Kafka’s “extraordinary insight into mechanisms of power, authority and violence” (137). Not surprisingly, Robertson’s prime example for such a total institution is The Trial. But in locating the origin of oppression in the family, he also touches on some of Kafka’s major stories. Rolf Goebel’s examination of Kafka’s references to real and imaginary recording machines and telecommunications [End Page 671] devices in the light of Paul Virilio’s theory of space, speed, and telecommunication demonstrates how Kafka’s writing anticipated “the age of television and virtual reality” (153). Peter Beicken’s scrutiny of the visual element in Kafka’s early short prose and passages from Amerika: The Missing Person and The Trial presents a persuasive case for the “cinematic quality” of Kafka’s fiction, which...

Psychosocial Risks in the Workplace: An Increasing Challenge for German and International Health Protection

Occupational health in a changing world has to face up to psychosocial risks to protect the health of employees now and in the future. Faster production, service and communication processes, a service- and knowledge-based society, an increasing proportion of intellectual work, growing complexity of work-related demands, new technologies and constant availability, mobility demands, and job insecurity contribute to the problem of psychosocial risks in the workplace. Psychosocial risks affect both physical and psychosocial health. There is scientific evidence of the link between psychosocial work-related stress and cardiovascular diseases, affective disorders or musculoskeletal disorders, especially chronic back pain.The Framework Directive on Safety and Health makes it very clear that employers are obliged "to ensure the safety and health of workers in every aspect relating to work". In spite of these far reaching obligations, a kind of taboo sometimes makes it hard to focus on topics that have psychosocial implications. A large number of models, instruments and methods are now available to gauge psychosocial risks in the workplace. Given the clear contrast between knowledge and application, there is not a lack of knowledge in this regard, but rather a lack of application.In Germany, statutory accident insurance institutions are guided by two key principles: putting prevention before rehabilitation and rehabilitation before compensation. To prevent work-related health risks the BG RCI has developed several prevention tools to help employers and employees deal with psychosocial risks in the workplace.

The new guidelines for management of work-related asthma

Work-related asthma, which includes occupational asthma as well as work-aggravated asthma, has become one of the most prevalent occupational lung diseases. In spite of increasing knowledge of the causes and underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, this preventable disorder continues to account for at least 15% of all asthma cases in the adult population and is responsible for a significant socioeconomic burden [1, 2]. Using national data sets for 1999 from the USA, Leigh and co-workers [3, 4] estimated the annual direct and indirect costs of occupational asthma and occupational chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to be US $1.5 and $2.2 billion, respectively, mostly borne by affected workers, their families and the taxpayer. In 2005, the financial burden for work-related asthma and COPD (the latter only refers to hard coal miners) of the German statutory accident insurance institutions amounted €103.1 and €23.6 million, respectively [5]. The total costs across Europe are not known …

Incidental and Preliminary--Features of the Late Kafka

This article points towards a connection between two research areas conventionally separated from each other: on the one hand, an interest in the social problems and ideas with which Kafka was familiar in his job at the Prague Workmen’s Accident Insurance Institute and, on the other hand, an interest in Kafka’s writing process. The world of Kafka’s late texts looks like one seen through the eyes of an insurance expert, shaped by flexible, only preliminary norms and calculations in which the behavior of a single individual is incidental and insignificant. A closer look at late manuscripts by Kafka demonstrates that he struggled hard against the merely preliminary character of his writing and experienced difficulties deciding what was merely incidental and what was significant in his own texts. The difficulties of the writing process are also difficulties that the figures in his texts have to deal with: hence, the incidental and the preliminary are seen here as features of Kafka’s late writing and writings.

Not a Safe Protective Measure Against Infection

Masks used to cover mouth and nose are particularly suitable for sick patients—if acceptable—in order to reduce the aerosol transmission route of infection, especially during coughing fits. For medical personnel, such face masks—as described, the shape of surgical masks—should be subject to general discussion only if used as a means of prevention, especially with regard to patients and third parties. For medical personnel looking after flu patients, however, such face masks are not a safe protective measure against infection and, according to the rules of the responsible insurers, would therefore have to be replaced with standardized FFP masks—meeting the recommended particle protection classes 1, 2, or 3—depending in the exposure risk (see also comments of the GUV (German statutory accident insurances) dated 30 April 2009—press information from the BGW (German Social Accident Insurance Institution for the health and welfare services)—and decision of the committee for biological working materials—ABAS—609 of December 2009).

Non-malignant occupational respiratory diseases in Germany in comparison with those of other countries

To present recent data on the occurrence of non-malignant occupational airway diseases in Germany and to compare mainly affected occupations of obstructive airway diseases caused by allergens and irritants with available surveillance data from other countries. Sources of German data were statistics for the year 2003 of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and of the federation of statutory accident insurance institutions for the industrial sector. Confirmed cases of non-malignant occupational respiratory diseases in Germany are mainly benign asbestos-associated diseases (occupational disease no. 4103: 1,975 cases), silicosis/coal worker's pneumoconiosis (occupational disease no. 4101: 1,158 cases), obstructive airway diseases due to allergens (occupational disease no. 4301: 935 cases), chronic obstructive bronchitis and/or emphysema in hard coal miners (occupational disease no. 4111: 414 cases), obstructive airway diseases due to irritants and toxic agents (occupational disease no. 4302: 181 cases), diseases caused by ionising radiation (171 cases), diseases due to isocyanates (occupational disease no. 1315: 55 cases), and 22 cases of other rare occupational lung and airway diseases. Miners, bakers, chemical workers, hairdressers and health care workers are mostly affected. Bakers were also frequently affected by occupational asthma in Finland, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Piedmont region in Italy, South Africa, and New Zealand. Further, high frequencies of occupational asthma were reported for health care workers in France, Italy, New Jersey, Michigan, and South Africa. Despite completely different legal definitions and regulations, comparably high numbers of occupational obstructive diseases in western countries require better primary and secondary prevention in industries with high incidence, especially in bakeries, the health care sector, farming, and mining. Furthermore, there is a urgent need for harmonization of recognition and compensation systems for occupational diseases as well as of respective preventive strategies within the European Union.

Franz Kafkas Sprachen: "... in einem Stockwerk des innern babylonischen Turmes. .." (review)

Reviewed by: Franz Kafkas Sprachen: ". . . in einem Stockwerk des inneren babylonischen Turmes . . . " Franz R. Kempf Franz Kafkas Sprachen: "... in einem Stockwerk des inneren babylonischen Turmes... ", by Marek Nekula. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2003. 397 pp. €98.00. While trying to find relief from his tuberculosis at a sanatorium in Meran in April 1920, Kafka was invited to share a dinner table with two high-ranking members of the Austrian army. In the course of the conversation, the colonel and the general engaged in a striking and frightening act of linguistic antisemitism. Not only were their fine ears able to trace Kafka's German with uncanny accuracy back to the Kleinseite district of Prague, but they were also able to detect a tone in Kafka's German that, for them, could only be Jewish. Nekula's exhaustively positivistic linguistic study of Kafka's (and his parents') German and Czech in the present monograph fills a lacuna in Kafka scholarship. Nekula's main source material is the private correspondence of the Kafka family to which he had access at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Some of his findings represent a necessary, albeit not earth-shattering, corrective to something that originated with Politzer and Wagenbach and since then has evolved into a truism of Kafka criticism: Prague (Jewish) German. Nekula concedes that while there may have been audible in Kafka's German traces of a "Jewish ethnolect," it is problematic to maintain the received notion that Kafka's German was colored by Prague's Jewish German because it is difficult to differentiate between Viennese, Yiddish, and/or "upper-German" influences and idiosyncrasies. What, at the time, many considered to be "Pragisms" were in fact "Austrianisms" which people outside of Austria mistook for "Jewish." And just as Prague Jewish German is a misnomer for Nekula, equally questionable is the "myth" of a distinct and unified Prague German and, by extension, the "myth" of Prague as a secluded German Sprachinsel where German had become more and more ossified, if not atrophied; this, in turn, is commonly given as an explanation for Kafka's unadorned style. Nekula shows that Prague reacts to and participates in developments in the German language, mainly due to the influx of Jews from, for the most part, Bavaria. He thus corroborates that Kafka' s sparse and sober style is, first and foremost, the result of a self-conscious artistic choice. [End Page 159] Despite the importance of German for the Prague Jews and for Kafka and his family—in 1900, 91% of all Jewish children attended German-speaking schools; German was the language used in and around the synagogue; Kafka's father carried out his epistolary courtship of his wife-to-be in German; the inscriptions on the tomb of the Kafka family are in German—Czech is not neglected. As a matter of fact, Nekula marshals ample evidence to make the point that Kafka was indeed bi-lingual. For eight years, Kafka had formal instruction in Czech at the Gymnasium (in his final year, his grade in Czech was better than in German), including extensive exposure to Czech literature (whose "influences" on Kafka's oeuvre are largely unexplored); Kafka learned Hebrew from a Czech textbook; in 1918, with Czechoslovakia gaining independence, Kafka had no trouble switching to Czech when it became the official (and only) language at his place of business, the Workers' Accident Insurance Institute. Other components of Kafka's "Czechness" are his (alleged) ties with the anarchist klub mladych, as well as his short-lived but close, even intimate friendship with Milena Jesenská (who, during their relationship, translated The Stoker into Czech) or his active interest in Max Brod's renderings into German of Janáček's operas. Kafka's antidote to any form of linguistic chauvinism was his hope for a Babylonian confusion of languages (alluded to in the title of Nekula's book), which he thought he had encountered while traveling through multilingual Switzerland. German, Yiddish, and Hebrew play, of course, a crucial role in his life, not in terms of his nationality but in terms of his identity as a writer and, concomitantly, as a Jew. Despite Nekula's single-minded scrutiny of Kafka...

Organisation der Heil- und Hilfsmittelversorgung in der gesetzlichen Unfallversicherung

Curative treatment under statutory accident insurance also encompasses the provision of medicinal products and medical aids. The intention is to ensure that the curative treatment is successful and to mitigate or compensate for the effects of physical, mental or psychological injury. This is part of our statutory mandate, which is to apply all appropriate means to restore insured persons’ health and fitness after occupational accidents or work-related disorders. In view of the cost explosion, especially in the provision of medical aids, the develpment of new strategies seems both permissible and necessary. However, when exercising the discretion they are entitled to use, accident insurance institutions must always bear in mind the purpose of this entitlement in each case. The provision of medical aids must be centred on the individual needs of the insured person and meet exacting quality standards. Uniform regulations should apply to all accident insurance institutions if possible. Given the complexity of this subject, the paper is essentially restricted to the provision of medical aids.

Impact of preventive strategies on trend of occupational skin disease in hairdressers: population based register study

Hairdressing is one of the occupations most hazardous to the skin.1 Various efforts have been made in Germany in the past 10 years to reduce the incidence of occupational skin...

Occupational obstructive airway diseases in Germany

In industrialized countries, occupational asthma caused by allergens and irritants due to workplace exposure is increasing. More than 8,000 such claims were made in Germany (10.5% of all decided occupational disease claims) in 1995; 1,900 were confirmed (6.5% of all confirmed claims). The legal basis and the occupational disease-related regulations of trade-assigned statutory accident insurance institutions (‘Berufsgenossenschaften’) in Germany are described. Hitherto, three occupational disease categories for obstructive airway disorders existed: due to sensitizing agents, due to chemical-irritative or toxic agents, and due to isocyanates. Approximately 40% of accepted claims for occupational asthma and rhinitis result from exposure to flour. Ongoing changes in the recognition of work-related airway disease symptoms account for differences in the incidence and prevalence as reported over the years. Recently, chronic obstructive bronchitis and/or emphysema of hard coal miners have been included in the German list of occupational diseases. Am. J. Ind. Med. 33:454–462, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Occupational obstructive airway diseases in Germany.

In industrialized countries, occupational asthma caused by allergens and irritants due to workplace exposure is increasing. More than 8,000 such claims were made in Germany (10.5% of all decided occupational disease claims) in 1995; 1,900 were confirmed (6.5% of all confirmed claims). The legal basis and the occupational disease-related regulations of trade-assigned statutory accident insurance institutions ('Berufsgenossenschaften') in Germany are described. Hitherto, three occupational disease categories for obstructive airway disorders existed: due to sensitizing agents, due to chemical-irritative or toxic agents, and due to isocyanates. Approximately 40% of accepted claims for occupational asthma and rhinitis result from exposure to flour. Ongoing changes in the recognition of work-related airway disease symptoms account for differences in the incidence and prevalence as reported over the years. Recently, chronic obstructive bronchitis and/or emphysema of hard coal miners have been included in the German list of occupational diseases.

The Service for the Organization of Postexposure Medical Examinations: ODIN.

In Germany, occupational contact with carcinogenic substances is regulated by very strict legislation. Thus, alongside strict implementation of agreement 139 of the International Labour Organization (ILO), legislation governing the medical monitoring and care of employees in the form of specialist preventive medical examinations is also in force. It is extremely important that medical preventive care should continue after employment involving contact with carcinogenic substances has ceased, since there is often a long delay before occupationally induced carcinosis develops. The German Service for the Organization of Postexposure Medical Examinations (ODIN) was established by the statutory German accident insurance institutions to ensure that early detection examinations continue to be performed into the employee's later life. Such preventive examinations can significantly enhance the success of cancer treatment by detecting malignancy in its early stages. The registration by ODIN of data concerning exposure to hazardous substances also has the function of preserving evidence required for possible compensation claims by victims of occupational illnesses. In the longer term, ODIN data may help us to explain the relationship between exposure to hazardous substances and the incidence of carcinosis.

Occupational health regulation

Occupational health regulation

The Preventive Approaches of the Statutory Accident Insurance System and Their Effectiveness.

For decades, prevention has been an integral and important part of the German statutory accident insurance system. The very close link between prevention, rehabilitation, and compensation, which is so typical for the German system, had an extremely positive effect on the frequency of notifiable occupational accidents. What is more, if we compare benefits and costs of the system, it appears that prevention has also been successful in a strictly monetary sense. After a short outline of the basic principles of the German accident insurance system, the authors take stock of the last 33 years. The period between 1960 and 1993 also covers the repercussions of the German reunification in 1990. The trends in accident and disease frequency are presented together with the trends in costs and benefits. To allow a realistic comparison, all figures are indicated in terms of 1960. It can be shown that the average contribution rate to accident insurance decreased in the period under consideration. This is particularly remarkable if we look at the enormous increase in contribution rates that took place in all other branches of social insurance. It is also noted that the contribution rates of the different industrial branches are immediately dependent on the accident risks in those industries. The last part of the article contains a qualitative and quantitative description of the prevention measures available to the German accident insurance institutions.

Group occupational medicine of the Swiss Accident Insurance Institute

According to the Swiss Federal Accident Insurance Law, the Swiss National Accident Insurance Company (Suva) is responsible for the prevention of occupational disease in all Swiss industries. In the Suva medical division, a special group concerned with occupational medicine ensures that these measures are implemented. It first of all organizes and supervises preliminary check-ups and follow-up examinations and then may also exclude endangered employees from their present activity. Such employees are entitled to free advice and in certain cases may qualify for interim daily allowances.

Investigation of serious accidents

According to an agreement reached between the central labour market organizations and the Federation of Accident Insurance Institutions in 1971, investigations are carried out in the case of serious accidents at work. The investigation aims at determining the technical, human and medical reasons that caused the occupational accident. The investigations are carried out under the quidance and supervision of the Consultative Board of the Federation of Accident Insurance Institutions. The Consultative Board appoints The Board of Directors for the investigation. The Board of Directors consists of four members, each member having a personal substitute. There are representatives of the employers' organizations and labour organizations, as well as the accident insurance institutions, on the Board. In addition, a separate board, the Board of Investigators, is set up for each investigation. The members of the Board are chosen from experts in the branch concerned. An occupational accident is investigated when it results in the death of two persons or more, or in the injury of several persons. Cases where several persons have been in danger are also investigated. Since 1971 44 occupational accidents have been investigated. The results of the investigations are intended for distribution to such establishments and authorities that can make use of them, such as industrial enterprises and legislators as well as those who plan instruction books and train persons for tasks related to labour protection.

Maximum acceptable weight of lift.

Abstract This paper discusses the maximum amount of weight that an individual can be expected to lift comfortably and without strain. Recommendations based on empirical estimates, biomechanical techniques, and psychophysical methods are reviewed, including those of the International Labour Office, the Swiss Accident Insurance Institute, the Danish National Association for Infantile Paralysis, and the U. S. Air Force. The approach used in two Air Force experiments is identified as a variation of the psychophysical method of magnitude production. An improved experimental design is described which includes the following advantages: (1) The control of additional variables not considered in previous studies. (2) Experimental controls and statistical procedures found necessary for use in psychophysical experiments. (3) Instructions and tasks which are more applicable to industrial situations. (4) Subjects who are experienced industrial workers, older and better conditioned to the lifting task. The results collected to date are discussed and compared with those of other investigators.