There are seven new California workplace fatalities. In Fresno, the owner of MC Transmissions died in a hospital where he was taken after falling 15 feet through a skylight at his place of business. In Covina, a body technician at the auto repair shop Valley Collision was found non-responsive at work after a co-worker heard …
The November 2023 fire at Martinez’s Marathon Renewables facility that severely burned an employee was the result of excessive temperatures in furnace tubes surfaces, a rupture in one of the tubes, a misaligned bypass valve, and instrumentation and interlocks that appear to have not been functioning correctly. That, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety and …
As Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health searches for its third chief in the past several years, candidates are starting to surface. Three internal DOSH candidates have applied. Now, a member of the Standards Board has thrown her hat in the ring. Nola Kennedy, PhD., CIH, the Board’s occupational health representative, appears to be …
As Cal/OSHA works to address a growing number of workplace silicosis cases, a newly proposed California Assembly bill aims to up the ante for engineered stone fabricators. AB 3043 by Assemblyman Luz Rivas (D-San Fernando Valley) would establish a statewide licensing program for fabrication shops, require workers to undergo training, prohibit the dry-cutting of engineered …
If you’re reading this, you probably know more about Cal/OSHA than me. That’s awkward since I’m Cal-OSHA Reporter’s new journalist covering Cal/OSHA, and it’s me who is supposed to be telling you what’s going on. If I had a business card, my title probably would be “The New Guy.” That’s how I’ve been introduced in …
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board has denied a petition by a safety equipment company to allow the use of load detection devices on construction personnel hoists instead of the currently mandated calculations for load capacity versus net platform area. The petitioner is a company that provides CPHs, scaffolding, and other equipment at construction sites. It says …
There are three new California workplace fatalities from late February. In Los Angeles, an employee of the Pasadena-based landscaping company Top Notch Tree Service was discovered dead at the bottom of a swimming pool at a residential home, with a weed-whacker on top of him. The tree service is a licensed landscaping company with no …