Blog Archives

AGC’s SPY: Swinerton’s Roberts

INDIAN WELLS — A longtime safety professional with a wealth of experience and an apparently inexhaustible supply of energy is Associated General Contractors of California’s Harry Eckstein Safety Professional of the Year. Gena Roberts, a safety manager for Swinerton Builders, was the unanimous choice of AGC’s internal and external judges. (Editor’s note: Cal-OSHA Reporter participated in … Read More »

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Comment Period Starts on Helicopter Fueling, Single-Rail Proposals

A 45-day comment period has started on two new Cal/OSH Standards Board regulatory proposals, which will culminate with the last public hearing of the year, Dec. 15 in Sacramento. The proposals include one that would remove an obsolete requirement on helicopter fueling, and prevent a potential unintended consequence from the recent reorganization of the Cal/OSHA … Read More »

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Too Much Oxygen?

In our Oct. 21 Decisions section (p. 6647), we summarized a Cal/OSH Appeals Board administrative law judge’s comments in a case that partly involved confined spaces. We wrote: “Further, the evidence established that the wine press was properly viewed as a permit-required confined space area (5157(b)). It had the potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere … Read More »

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California Injury Rates Remain Even

Total employment in California was down in 2010 from the year before, and injuries declined in tandem. But the state’s injury and illness rate — the total recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers — remained the same as 2009, at 4.2, according to statistics released by the state Division of Labor Statistics and … Read More »

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Ladders Inspections a “Nightmare”?

What seems like common sense to one safety professional would create an “administrative nightmare” for companies, stakeholders told Cal/OSH Standards Board at an Oct. 20 public hearing. The board took comments on proposed changes concerning the frequency of ladder inspection, and another proposal. The changes to General Industry Safety Orders §3276 are based on a … Read More »

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‘Pay-for-PPE’ Proposal Pulled

It’s back to the drawing board for a proposed new regulation, General Industry Safety Orders §3380.1, Employer Duty to Pay for Personal Safety Devices and Safeguards. It’s a three-line standard that simply codifies what has been law in California for a number of years, but simplicity often is in the eye of the beholder. The … Read More »

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Board Adopts Updated Shipyard Rules

After rejecting or postponing votes on two safety order proposals at its Oct. 20 meeting, Cal/OSH Standards Board did adopt one safety order package, the California version of a Fed-OSHA rulemaking, Conditions in Shipyard Employment. The “Horcher” adoption, as it is known, revises Ship Building, Ship Repairing and Ship Breaking Safety Orders, Articles 1, 3, … Read More »

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Serious Violations Alleged in Worker’s Fall Through a Skylight

A Southern California worker who fell almost 30 feet to his death in April was not protected from the skylights he was working around, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has determined after an investigation into the workplace fatality. DOSH has cited the employer, known as Eberhard, for two alleged serious violations in the … Read More »

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