SAN FRANCISCO – This week we include revisions of two Safety Aids pages, since changes have occurred. First, the Table of Contents for the COR Safety Aids section is updated because we have added a number of pages since the last time it was issued. Please remove the old contents, dated July 7, 1997, from …
SAN FRANCISCO – The Third Court of Appeal in Sacramento, in brief orders issued March 13, reinstated General Industry 5110, ergonomics, as drafted by the Cal-OSH Standards Board. (See SAFETY AIDS pp. 64-109 and 110.) The small employer exemption is back in. The original version of the ergo standard will remain in place pending the …
SAN FRANCISCO – In our notice about the March 19 agenda for the Cal-OSH Standards Board (NEWS p. 00-6869) we made the too-broad statement that safety belts are prohibited for use as fall protection devices. We stand corrected. Don Marquis of Rudolph and Sletten in Foster City, CA, wrote: “You stated that Article 24 of …
SAN DIEGO – For Greg Watchman, the lawyer who is deputy assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the biggest workplace health problem in America today. They contribute to 62 percent of workplace illnesses. Their toll on business comes to one-third of a billion dollars a year in workers’ compensation. The cost …
SAN DIEGO – After a four-month OSHA investigation of an explosion at the Columbus, Ohio, facility of Georgia-Pacific Resins, the company and OSHA announced agreement on a plan to assure adherence to the requirements of the process safety management (PSM) standard. The accident that brought the Feds to the site occurred on September 10, 1997, …
SAN FRANCISCO – Those who attended the March 5 meeting of the Cal-OSHA Advisory Committee were given copies of a report to the legislature on the Loss Control and Targeted Inspection and Consultation Programs, plus the report of Cal-OSHA inspection activity in 1997 on the Los Angeles Metro Rail project. Cal-OSHA Chief John Howard called …
SAN FRANCISCO – The key to subject of most-frequently cited Title 8 safety orders, issued last week on Safety Aids page 67-336, needs a correction. Title 8 342 requires that employers report a work fatality or serious injury immediately, or within eight hours—not 24 hours. Please write in the change. .ENDSECTION
SAN FRANCISCO – Physiotherapist Jane Greening of University College, London, said recently that she had found a way to measure chronic pain in fingers and hands. According to Reuters, she and a neurophysiologist used a device called a vibrometer to determine the function of sensory nerves in the hands of 17 RSI sufferers and another …