Here are settlements stemming from fatalities that occurred in 2016, 2017 2018 and 2019. Employers settled in ranges from zero to 75% of the proposed penalties. The Appeals Board approved these settlements in October. Here are the cases: Sully-Miller Contracting Co.: The employee was working in a 7-1/2-foot-deep trench on a highway project when a …
There are five new workplace fatalities under investigation, two of them may not be work related and two are reported as allegedly COVID-related. The non-COVID fatalities include: A death in Borrego Springs, San Diego County. An employee of Reliable Carriers died from injuries suffered while attempting to unjam a car carrier ramp, which loosened and …
The director of the Department of Industrial Relations has appointed a new Acting Chief of Cal/OSHA. She is Danielle “Dan”Lucido. Lucido, 43, is the new Cal/OSHA Chief Counsel but she has been on the job for barely six months. Lucido (known informally as“Dan”)“has an occupational safety and health background,”says Brandon Hart, DOSH program manager for …
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board has revised its long-stalled proposal to update firefighters’ personal protective equipment provisions. The major change to the proposal is the deletion of a requirement for respiratory protection for wildland firefighting after pushback from fire organizations. The proposal was heard at a March public hearing, and the latest changes were in a …
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board has denied the request of a Porterville dietitian to drop some requirements in the aerosol transmissible diseases standard for tuberculosis testing for healthcare employees. The petitioner, Kevin Schwanz, pointed to federal guidelines which indicate the tests aren’t necessary in most cases. But the Board agrees with the Division of Occupational Safety …
Is the 1973 version of a national consensus standard on construction personnel hoists in some ways better than the latest version from 2016? Could be, says the Cal/OSHA Standards Board. It is authorizing an advisory committee to take a close look at current references. The goal is to ensure that CPH best practices and technologies …
There are 13 new California workplace fatalities, six of them reported as COVID-related. Of the seven non-COVID deaths, three are from falls, one case of harmful exposure, and three as-yet undetermined cases, which may not be occupational related. In Pacoima, an employee of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Station died from injuries suffered after …
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board has authorized an advisory committee to study potential revisions to its pressure vessel rules on air-supply piping. One employer on the business end of the regulation calls it“ridiculously outdated.” The move comes in response to a petition by Michael Miller, president of Original Sixteen-to-One Mine in Alleghany. The Division of Occupational …