BERKELEY – Martin Blinder, a psychiatrist in San Francisco and Honolulu, contributed an article to The Wall Street Journal in which he profiled the workplace killer. Blinder explained that, as a forensic psychiatrist, he had been called upon to investigate several dozen workplace homicides. In the article he provided a list of traits that would …
OAKLAND – Calamitous accidents in the Los Angeles area left two electrical workers dead and ripped the arm off a 20-year-old man, who lived. Cal-OSHA is investigating the deaths of the Southern California Edison linemen, two of a four-man crew called to repair a damaged transformer in the City of Industry on March 31. Just …
SAN FRANCISCO – Robert McDowell has been named manager of the Loss Control Certification Unit, Division of Occupational Safety and Health. McDowell, who replaces Bill Van Cleve (greatly admired, now retired), was last a vice president, risk control, with Summit Risk Management. The LCCU works exclusively with workers’ compensation carriers. McDowell has been joined by …
SAN FRANCISCO – The Cal-OSH Standards Board has announced that the following subjects will be considered by ad hoc advisory committees convened to consider revisions to Cal-OSHA safety orders in Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations. GUARDRAILS/FALL PROTECTION, NON-CONSTRUC-TION: May 7-8, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Department of General Services, 1325 J St., …
LOS ANGELES – Cal-OSHA is watching the following bills that have been introduced this year in Sacramento. Chief Counsel Mike Mason discussed them briefly at the April meeting of the Cal-OSHA Advisory Committee. TRAFFIC CONTROL/FLAGGERS: AB 140 (Baca and Floyd) would prohibit any person, including but not limited to a flag person or construction traffic …
LOS ANGELES – Cal-OSHA’s West Covina office has completed its investigation of the January 22 confined space accident in Compton and has issued citations with total proposed penalties of almost $23,000. A work crew was working in the basement of an old Sears store, in a 14-foot-deep baler pit, when one man was overcome by …
LOS ANGELES – On April 11, attorneys for five parties assembled before Superior Court Judge James T. Ford to argue about the proposed Cal-OSHA standard for control of RMIs (repetitive motion injuries). They represented the California Labor Federation, two injured workers and the Attorney General on behalf of the Cal-OSH Standards Board. Representing intervenors were …
LOS ANGELES – The April 3 meeting of the Cal-OSHA Advisory Committee began with a report by Jess F. Kraus, Ph.D., who gave a thorough account of research his team at UCLA undertook into the effectiveness of back support belts for preventing low back injuries. The goal, Dr. Kraus said, was to evaluate commercially available …