California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is investigating the Sept. 25 fatality to a worker in Kern County farm country. The worker, identified by the Bakersfield Californian as 49-year-old Jose Luis Esquivel of Orland, was repairing the hydraulic system of a pistachio harvester when he was crushed to death, the newspaper reports. Esquivel …
Our Aug. 27 story, “California Fatalities Plummet in 2009” (p. 9829), contained two errors. We reported a big jump in fatalities in the government sector, from 22 in 2008 to 55 in 2009. But the actual figure for 2008 was 63, meaning, at least according to the preliminary figures, that there was a drop from …
The “green” energy industry is seen as potential economic engine for California, with good jobs helping build an infrastructure for a more energy-independent future. And the jobs are being created. Employment of solar photovoltaic installers increased an estimated 64% between 2008 and 2009, from 3,300 to 5,700, according to the California Community Colleges’ Centers of …
SAN DIEGO — In another first for California occupational safety and health regulation, Cal/OSH Standards Board on Sept. 16 adopted a standard to protect workers from the lung-busting chemical diacetyl, but not before getting an earful from management representative Willie Washington. Washington was the lone dissenter in a 6-1 vote to approve new General Industry …
Allowing an electrical worker into an underground electrical room without insulating it first or providing other protections resulted in his electrocution March 17, and it has landed his employer, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. citations for eight alleged serious violations, including a willful allegation. The Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) proposes more than …
SAN DIEGO — Cal/OSH Standards Board unanimously adopted revisions to the Construction Safety Orders (CSO) on pile driving and extraction, and to the CSO and General Industry Safety Orders (GISO) on scaffold plank design at its Sept. 16 meeting. The pile-driving action revises Construction Safety Orders §§ 1600-1601 and is based on a new national …
There were no comments at a public hearing Sept. 17 on a Cal/OSH Standards Board proposal to clear up a conflict between Cal/OSHA and California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) regulations on underground utility vaults. CPUC says such vaults must be at least five feet high, while Fed-OSHA, whose rules govern Cal/OSHA regulations, stipulate a 6-1/2-foot …
By a majority vote following a public hearing, the following revisions to Title 8 safety orders have been adopted by Cal/OSH Standards Board. They have been approved by the Office of Administrative Law and now are in the California Code of Regulations. CHROMIUM (VI): Revisions to Construction Safety Orders §1532.2, General Industry Safety Orders §5206 …