California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is investigating a March 24 workplace fatality involving an employee of Al Larson Boat Shop at Terminal Island. The shop is a commercial and recreational marine vessel repair yard. The worker was dismantling a scaffold that had been used to paint barges, when he slipped off the scaffold …
The California Hotel and Lodging Association (CHLA) is up in arms aboout a bill that would require hotels to switch from flat to fitted sheets and provide long-handled cleaning implements to its housekeepers. Supporters say it’s necessary to prevent musculoskeletal injuries so prevalent in the hotel industry. SB 432, authored by Kevin De Leon (D-Los …
How far should Cal/OSHA go in limiting how agricultural workers can ride on equipment in the field? That’s what the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) wants to figure out with an April 28 stakeholder meeting in Sacramento. DOSH says it wants input from the agricultural community on safety issues related to transporting farm …
No sooner than the March 18 edition of Cal-OSHA Reporter had been put to bed last week, with our story about the impending termination of Art Carter’s term on Cal/OSH Appeals Board, than the governor not only retained Carter on the board but named him chair. The appointment was made — it has yet …
A routine operation to install light bulbs at a Staples store in Sacramento turned deadly March 16 when a worker was crushed attempting to climb out of the lift basket he had been working from. California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is investigating the fatality. The worker, identified as Zeke Odom, 40, was …
Cal/OSH Standards Board voted 6-1 on March 17 to approve a regulatory revision on guardrail strength that Fed-OSHA considers mandatory, but only on new systems. Board members said the compromise, which grandfathers existing systems makes little sense, but acquiesced to federal insistence on the requirements for future installations. The controversy over whether the Cal/OSHA standard …
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) will draft a regulatory proposal on protections for adult-film industry (AFI) workers in advance of a June 7 meeting in Los Angeles that should culminate in stakeholder discussions on the issue. Briefing Cal/OSH Standards Board on March 17, Senior Safety Engineer Deborah Gold of the DOSH Research …
Legislation that would improve safety and reporting standards for hospital staff, patients and visitors is being lauded by supporters as a much-needed measure to protect health care workers, especially nurses, against violent inmates in hospitals. But opponents worry that the legislation’s reporting requirements will be burdensome on staff and possibly duplicative of other regulatory requirements. …