BURBANK – The Cal-OSH Standards Board will hold its regular meeting and hearing on June 19 at 10 a.m. in the Caltrans Building, 111 Grand Ave., Oakland. At the public meeting, comments will be solicited on a pilot project designed to allow an applicant for permanent variance from a safety order to apply for interim …
BURBANK – Latex gloves are widely used to protect health workers from exposure to bloodborne pathogens. They are susceptible to tiny puncture holes that are hard to see. Habley Medical Technology Corp. in Lake Forest, Orange County, has just been awarded a patent for a modification that will provide instant warning. It consists of two …
BURBANK – Fed-OSHA has been very slow to decide whether including the “clear and reasonable warning” portion of Proposition 65 in Cal-OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard should be allowed to continue. Although OSHA asked for comments on the linkage in September and was supposed to reach a decision by January 1, 1997, it did not; possible …
BURBANK – NEXT ASSISTANT SECRETARY: The choice of next OSHA administrator has not been announced, but two names are frequently mentioned—Charles Jeffress, deputy commissioner of labor in North Carolina (see NEWS pl. 00-6580), and Tara O’Toole, assistant secretary of environment, safety and health at the U.S. Department of Energy. ERGONOMICS ON THE WEB: On Workers’ …
BURBANK – The latest issue of Environmental Health News, published by the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, is devoted to risk assessment. Editor Ellen W. Chu explores risk as a statistical probability of harm arising from exposure to a hazard as well as the internal calculus each of us uses to …
BURBANK – This gem was in April Synergist, courtesy of two Clayton Environmental consultants in Kennesaw, Georgia: “The only ergonomic adjustment Americans are habitually aware of and routinely perform is changing a car seat. We need to make a cultural shift where people think of and routinely make the proper adjustments to their physical work …
BERKELEY – This week we are publishing the three-part index to the COR summaries of the Appeals Board’s 1996 written decisions and decisions after reconsideration. Please file the Index of Decisions, 1996, pages 40-3345.1 to -3345.5, behind page 40-3345, the final page of the 1996 decisions. The entire Decisions volume and index, pages 40-3223 to …
BERKELEY – The new U.S. Secretary of Labor is Alexis Herman, a veteran Democratic political activist whose appointment was held up by the Congressional probe into fund raising by the Democratic National Committee. Now speculation begins over who the next OSHA head will be. Nancy Adams has been named ergonomics coordinator for Fed-OSHA. Adams most …