Blog Archives

Feds Propose More Than $1 Million Penalty in Fatal Houston Explosion

A third fatality within a year involving CES Environmental Services, Inc., has prompted the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Fed-OSHA) to cite the firm for 15 alleged willful violations and more than $1.4 million in proposed penalties. The latest incident killed a worker in July 2009 when flammable vapors ignited inside a tank the … Read More »

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Chain of Responsibility

BENICIA — As a Cal/OSHA Voluntary Protection Program Star site, Valero Refining’s Benicia facility takes its responsibility to go above and beyond Cal/OSHA regulations seriously. So when an employee suffered a lost-time injury last June after falling while working on a chain ladder and spent a couple of days in the hospital, the refinery decided … Read More »

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EEEC Seminar on Feb. 18

State Compensation Insurance Fund and the Economic and Employment Enforcement Coalition (EEEC) host a half-day seminar Feb. 18 targeted at construction industry employers interested in the topic of EEEC sweeps. EEEC is a labor, employment and licensing enforcement unit that conducts unannounced inspections aimed at rooting out the so-called “underground economy” — employers who fail … Read More »

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Ripsaw Protections Set to Advance

A Cal/OSHA proposal to clarify circular ripsaw safey is on its way to adoption into Title 8 after a Jan. 21 Standards Board public hearing during which no one from the regulated public made recommendations or even commented.   The proposal to revise General Industry Safety Orders §4301 stems from the case of Sanford Lussier, … Read More »

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AG Employee Dies at Work

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is investigating the Jan. 7 workplace death of an employee of the state Attorney General’s office in Eureka. The fatality appears to be from natural causes. The worker was employed by the AG’s Bureau of Forensic Services. She was filing papers and performing clerical work when she began … Read More »

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Minor Injuries but Major Citations to Contra Costa County Refinery

Two contractor workers at the ConocoPhillips Co. refinery in Rodeo received minor burns on Sept. 29, 2009 during a maintenance operation, but the case has taken a major turn, with the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) Northern California Process Safety Management unit issuing a number of citations for serious and willful/general violations.   … Read More »

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Standards Board Warms to “Hot Pipes and Hot Surfaces” Revisions

Exactly what does Title 8 mean when it says employer must insulate pipe or other surfaces when they are “sufficient to burn human tissue on momentary contact?” It appears that employers are confused about the requirement in General Industry Safety Orders §3308 and the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has a hard time … Read More »

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Heat Illness Petition Denied

The Cal/OSH Standards Board has denied a heat-illness-related petition because of ongoing efforts to revise the state standard, and has received a new petition designed to give workers greater protection when using fall protection. The board denied the petition from Garth Patterson of Heat Relief Solutions, who asserts that the current General Industry Safety Orders … Read More »

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