SAN FRANCISCO – The Division of Occupational Safety and Health intends to start charging fees for process safety management (PSM) inspections and consultations — but not until a regulation is in place. Deputy Chief Frank Ciofalo told the Cal-OSHA Advisory Committee that each PSM inspection takes an inordinate amount of time. “Fee authority is in …
SAN FRANCISCO – Attending an OSHSPA (Occupational Safety and Health State Plan Association) meeting is a good way to find out what other state plan states are doing. For instance, there are 11 states that require employers to establish a written safety program. Federal OSHA has singled out the plans in Oregon and Wyoming with …
BERKELEY – Please change a phone number in the Trainers & Consultants List published on May 20 (p. 50-013). Jim Otero’s S.O.S. Environmental Health and Safety Consultants in California City should be called at 619-373-0163 (the other is his home phone). ACC Environmental Consultants, also on the T&C list, has a course offering coming up …
PALO ALTO, CA – Long-time readers have noticed that the number of formal, written decisions issued by the Cal-OSH Appeals Board is shrinking year by year. “True, but the decisions we see are more complicated,” says COR Digest editor Ellen Denmead. In 1995, board Executive Officer Janet Eagan told COR, 929 appeals were settled by …
PALO ALTO, CA – On May 20, the U.S. Labor Department, the CA Labor Commissioner and Cal-OSHA took action against a south Los Angeles knitwear firm known as Chums Casual, Chums Knitwear or Stephen K. Corp. Some major department stores buy from Chums, and they were named. Federal investigators said some of the firm’s 72 …
PALO ALTO, CA – The TEAM bill has been identified by the Wall Street Journal as “one of the hottest business issues in Congress.” The bill passed the House of Representatives in 1995. It would amend the National Labor Relations Act to permit non-union companies to create employee “teams” to discuss matters that affect them. …
PALO ALTO, CA – Two faithful COR readers have books out. Marianne Brown, who directs the UCLA-LOSH (Labor Occupational Safety and Health) program, announces that LOSH has published a guidebook, RISK MAPPING: A Group Method for Improving Workplace Health and Safety. The 47-page easy-to-read illustrated booklet shows how workers together can develop maps of workplace …
PALO ALTO, CA – The Cal-OSH Standards Board has announced that three sets of revisions to Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations are now effective. The fourth (asbestos) will not be in effect until July. ROOF TIE-BACKS: General Industry 3291(f)(1) and Title 24 of the California Building code, 8505(e), were heard last November, …