SAN FRANCISCO – A young, three-man team of oil workers who had been injecting water into a steel pipe to force oil from a 10,000-foot-deep well to the surface died August 10 after inhaling fumes from a hydrogen sulfide gas leak. According to a fire department spokesman, when the men removed their nozzles, water started …
SAN FRANCISCO – The Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s (DOSH) challenge to the Cal-OSH Appeals Board in James DeSilva, D.P.M., was denied by the San Bernardino Superior Court after a July 29 hearing. The issue was whether DOSH had correctly cited the podiatrist for a serious violation of 5220(d)(2)(A) for failing to test his …
SAN FRANCISCO – On June 16, the state supreme court denied a firefighter’s petition for review in Riverview Fire Protection Dist. v. WCAB (Smith). In so doing, the high court upheld the decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal that annulled application of Labor Code 3212.1, the cancer presumption, to a firefighter’s stomach cancer. …
SAN FRANCISCO – Cal-OSHA concluded its investigation into a February 19, 1994, incident in the emergency room of Riverside General Hospital by announcing it had found no violations of occupational safety and health regulations related to the incident. However, it did cite the hospital for some serious non-accident-related violations of Title 8 California Code of …
SAN FRANCISCO – On August 17, two days after it cited the county hospital, Cal-OSHA issued 12 citations to the Riverside County Coroner’s Office for 29 violations of Title 8 California Code of Regulations (CCR). Both sets of citations resulted from the inspection which began after the incident at Riverside General Hospital in which a …
SAN FRANCISCO – The large Cal-OSHA/Fed-OSHA inspection force that conducted the Metro Rail safety audit shut down six operations, inspected 12 job sites and found at least 86 violations of Title 8 safety orders. Closing conferences were held with the 12 prime contractors on August 24 and 25. Cal-OSHA will soon be issuing a final …
SAN FRANCISCO – From the look of the Federal Register language, the Cal-OSHA standards staff will have its hands full getting the existing Title 8 safety orders for asbestos revised to be comparable to the bulky federal package within six months. It is not clear yet whether the Division of Occupational Safety and Health or …
SAN FRANCISCO – August 26 is the last day for amendments to be made to current legislation. Earlier in the week, SB 1768 (Patrick Johnston), a workers’ compensation bill, contained one section that would impact on Cal-OSHA as well as workers’ comp insurers. If Insurance Code 11721 stands as amended, it would exempt an insurer …