LOS ANGELES – It turns out that Dutch workers can protect their pedal extremities by wearing wooden clogs, not just steel-toed safety boots. “We were very tough on them, and they came through,” said wooden-shoe researcher Jan Broeders of the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, which ran the battery of tests. A wooden shoe …
LOS ANGELES – At the November 6 meeting of the Cal-OSHA Advisory Committee, Deputy Chief Mark Carleson briefly went over two of three recent deaths of Los Angeles Metro Rail workers. The first employee fell from a scaffold in North Hollywood. The High Hazard Unit has already cited the contractor, he said. The man who …
LOS ANGELES – The Cal-OSH Standards Board has announced that the following additions, revisions or deletions have been made to California Code of Regulations Title 8 safety orders as follows: LASER WARNING SIGNS AND LABELS—Amendments of Construction 1801 to add new (d) and Tunnel 8416 were heard at the June 19, 1997, public hearing, adopted …
LOS ANGELES – The City of Palo Alto has an opening for a safety officer. The successful candidate will also assist in managing the city’s workers’ compensation and will coordinate and administer other human resources programs as assigned. Bachelor’s degree or equivalent and two years’ experience in safety administration, including experience with training, program monitoring …
SAN DIEGO – Until recently, the Cal-OSHA program has not been beset by legal challenges as Fed-OSHA often is. But now, two very significant cases have appeared. (Not to mention Prop. 65 lawsuits, in which Cal-OSHA is only peripherally involved.) With the ergonomics standard, for which labor pushed hard, appeals of Judge Ford’s ruling will …
SAN DIEGO – Cal-OSHA’s rules for classification of violations are found in Title 8 334; they are of concern to many because classification affects the amount of the penalty. (For several recent discussions of willful violations, see October 27, 1997, issue DECISIONS.) Now, two employers who were cited for willfuls, who lost both appeals and …
SAN DIEGO – The October 17, 1997, Federal Register contains copious information about Occupational Exposure to Tuberculosis. The proposed rule for 29 CFR Part 1910 runs from page 54160 to 54308. (It is followed in the FR by a proclamation about kiwi fruit research and promotion.) The proposal begins by calling TB a potentially lethal …
SAN DIEGO – Cal-OSHA’s small Medical Unit is keeping busy responding to complaints about exposures to tuberculosis in the workplace. There is a Policy & Procedure (C-47, and it’s on the Internet) for guidance. Because there is no worker protection standard, compliance people follow the P&P. Tam Smalstig, RN, told COR she and Joyce Simonowitz, …