In 2008 a worker at a Wal-Mart store on Long Island, N.Y., was killed when an out-of-control “Black Friday” mob rushed the doors as the store opened and trampled 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour. A pregnant woman also was injured in the incident, which one Wal-Mart employee described as the front doors being “bum-rushed by 200 people.” …
The Cal/OSH Appeals Board has been criticized for dismissing Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) citations, sometimes in serious cases, on technicalities. But sometimes employers pay the price for not paying attention to details. One such case landed in the California Court of Appeal, which upheld the board’s rejection of petition for reconsideration after …
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health is investigating the Nov. 19 death of an orchard worker in the Central Valley town of Porterville. The worker was employed by A.G.R. Contracting and was working in an orange grove. He was ascending a ladder with an empty orange picker’s sac when he fell off the ladder at …
There were no comments at the Standards Board’s Nov. 19 public hearing on a proposal to revise Low Voltage Electrical Safety Orders (LVESO). The proposal is a follow-up to recent rulemaking that updated LVESO, based on federal changes. The California update was conducted under the “Horcher” process, which allows the Standards Board to adopt federal …
San Franciso’s KQED-FM is airing a one-hour show on the Cal/OSHA program as part of its monthly “Health Dialogues” feature, part of the station’s “California Report” show. The segment explores the effectiveness of Cal/OSHA in the wake of criticisms of Appeals Board decisions. Taking part in the program are Division of Occupational Safety and Health …
A 100-ton mobile crane sliced through a Santa Rosa home Nov. 16, missing a tree worker by only a few feet. Cal/OSHA has begun an investigation of the incident and advised crews on the best way to remove the huge crane, which was suspended almost perpendicular to the ground, with the boom embedded in the …
Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) Chief Len Welsh announces the appointment of six of its staff members as senior safety engineers with various DOSH units. They include Eric Berg, Richard DaRosa, Richard “Dick” Roberts, Kevin Graulich, Gary McIver and Mark Pisani. Berg has been with DOSH since 1997, starting with the Concord district office …
While California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) inspectors were investigating an April incident at a Southgate food processing facility that resulted in an amputation, they discovered the employer had failed to report another amputation five years earlier. The employer, Marquez Marquez Food Products, is now looking at not one but two sets of …