Blog Archives

“A Pawn in a Game of Chess”: DOSH Works to Get Fired Worker Reinstated

Employees at a Rancho Cordova pharmaceutical facility expressed concerns about safety conditions at the plant late last year, triggering a Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) investigation that lasted several months. That led to a number of citations for serious violations and almost $50,000 in proposed penalties. But when a 14-year veteran of the … Read More »

This content is only available to premium subscribers. Please login here log in

Read More »

Missteps Lead to Two Tragedies

A branch that wasn’t fully cut and a fuel filler cap that wasn’t attached led to the deaths of two California workers last year. After investigations into each incident, the California Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) has offered its assessments and recommendations to prevent future incidents. The upshot? Tree trimmers shouldn’t cut limbs around … Read More »

This content is only available to premium subscribers. Please login here log in

Read More »

Redo on First Aid for Electrical Workers’ Proposal — Outside Scope

A proposal adopted last year by the Cal/OSH Standards Board to make sure the first-aid needs of electrical workers were at least as effective as federal rules was a little too effective, the board admits. It included the construction industry when the federal rule didn’t. A stakeholder brought the issue to the board’s attention and … Read More »

This content is only available to premium subscribers. Please login here log in

Read More »

Shafts and Culverts Revisions Okayed

By a majority vote following a public hearing, the following revisions to Title 8 safety orders have been adopted by the Cal/OSH Standards Board. They have been approved by the Office of Administrative Law and now are in the California Code of Regulations. VENTILATION INSIDE SHAFTS, CULVERTS AND PIPELINES: Revisions to Construction Safety Orders §§ … Read More »

This content is only available to premium subscribers. Please login here log in

Read More »

Are States With High Construction Fatality Rates Underreporting Injuries?

There appears to be an inverse ratio at work when it comes to injury, illness and fatality statistics, the RAND Corp. reports in a recently published study. States that report low numbers of nonfatal injuries among construction workers tend to have high rates of fatalities, while those with low fatality rates report higher number of … Read More »

This content is only available to premium subscribers. Please login here log in

Read More »

Traeger’s Valedictory

Candice Traeger, former chairwoman of the Cal/OSH Appeals Board and now a former board member, has a message for the occupational safety and health community: Thanks for your patience. Now a consultant looking to work with corporations to develop their public affairs programs, Traeger tells Cal-OSHA Reporter that her message to the community as her tenure … Read More »

This content is only available to premium subscribers. Please login here log in

Read More »

Routine Jobs Should Not Become Rescue and Recovery Operations

Is your workplace prepared for confined space entries? Are you even sure if the spaces in your worksite fit the definition? What precautions must you take before you clean, enter or otherwise allow personnel into confined spaces. With Cal/OSHA aiming to make confined-space incidents history with stepped-up enforcement, it’s more important than ever to get … Read More »

This content is only available to premium subscribers. Please login here log in

Read More »

A Long Way to Go

In the article on the L’Ambiance Hotel collapse, there are pictures at the top of the article showing an individual calling a worker off the scaffold to give him pointers on his fall protection harness. (Cal-OSHA Reporter News Digest, April 24, http://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/The-lessons-from-L-Ambiance-collapse-3501415.php .) If the worker climbed down on to the roof with the safety … Read More »

This content is only available to premium subscribers. Please login here log in

Read More »