In our Oct. 25 story, “RAND Study Finds ‘Large-Scale’ Serious Underreporting in California,” we stated that the researchers found a ratio of 3:1 of non-fatal reportable cases to every fatality for Kings County. John Mendeloff, director of the RAND Center for Health and Safety in the Workplace and one of the study’s authors, notes that …
Fed-OSHA readily admits that its permissible exposure limits are “out-of-date and inadequately protective.” There’s little chance that even the most outdated of them will be updated anytime soon. So what’s OSHA’s answer? Use the Cal/OSHA PELs for reference, as well as recommended limits from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and threshold limit …
In this week’s Decisions section of Cal-OSHA Reporter, an administrative law judge has reclassified a serious violation to general and reduced an $18,000 penalty to $225 because the Division of Occupational Safety and Health failed to send the employer a 1BY form before issuing the serious citation. In L3 Telemetry West, DOSH initiated an inspection of the …
Under a settlement between California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health and a Fontana employer, the Division has dropped a citation for a serious and repeat violation of the Title 8 lockout/tagout standard and $32,400 in penalties. But another repeat was affirmed in the agreement. The employer, Maplegrove Gluten Free Foods, Inc., will pay about …
SACRAMENTO – A long list of labor-oriented organizations urged the Cal/OSH Standards Board to retain key provisions of the California version of the Globally Harmonized System of hazard communication at an Oct. 17 public hearing on the latest round of GHS changes to Title 8. Meanwhile, employer representatives argued for “harmonization” of the Golden State …
The Oct. 19 incident near Walnut Creek that killed on Bay Area Rapid Transit worker and a contractor employee when a train struck them has similarities to a 2008 BART case that killed another employee. In fact, the Cal/OSH Appeals Board ruled on the case earlier this year and BART is still contesting some aspects …
The one-day symposium to explore the California Department of Public Health’s recommendations on workplace blood lead exposure is scheduled for 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Nov. 13 in the auditorium of the David Brower Center at U.C.-Berkeley. The symposium, moderated by Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, will cover …
A RAND Corp. study of Cal/OSHA inspection targeting says its findings suggest “that there is large-scale underreporting” to the agency of hospitalization cases that are the basis for most accident investigations. The trend appears to be greater in Southern California and rural counties. RAND’s figures “provide very strong evidence that the quality of reporting of …