OAKLAND – The final tally of workplace fatalities in California for 2010 shows that 326 workers lost their lives, a decrease of 20%. That’s no comfort to the families and friends of the deceased, which organizations noted at a number of events in the state commemorating Workers’ Memorial Day 2012. In Oakland, Worksafe sponsored a …
Candice Traeger, whose tenure on the Cal/OSH Appeals Board was at times controversial, has termed out and quietly left the board on March 15. The governor’s office is said to be considering candidates for the management seat Traeger had held since 2004. No announcement was made about her departure. Traeger, appointed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, …
A ruling by the California Court of Appeal means that the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) won’t have to spend possibly thousands of hours coming up with some 200,000 pages of records in its legal dispute with farm labor advocates over heat illness prevention enforcement. As it is, DOSH has turned over 1,100 …
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is investigating a series of workplace fatalities in the past week, almost all involving worker encounters with vehicles. The mayhem began on April 17, when an employee of J&S Signs in Morgan Hill was pinned between two trucks that were backing up. No other information was available …
COSTA MESA — Although not present at the April 19 public hearing held by the Cal/OSH Standards Board on a proposal to enhance safety for microtomes, a California safety professional has a lot to say about the proposal. Preventing lacerations and even amputations when using these laboratory machines takes more than a regulation, says Farrah …
Temperatures are starting to soar and Cal/OSHA is starting to roam the hottest areas of the state to ensure employers have implemented effective heat illness prevention programs. Although it’s only April, the thermometer has hit triple digits in some parts of California. Last weekend Death Valley cooked at 113°F, Needles baked at 107°F and Palm …
Even as the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) was formally launching its 2012 heat illness prevention campaign, inspectors were fanning out across Southern California, writing tickets for alleged violations. In Bakersfield, the division introduced the southern end of the Central Valley to its new district office while it announced the spring and summer …
Farm industry representatives say they are aghast at the provisions in AB 2346, otherwise known as the Farm Worker Safety Act of 2012, authored by Bonnie Butler (D-El Segundo). Sponsored by the United Farm Workers and announced several weeks ago with much fanfare, the bill seeks to require the farm industry to provide shade, …