Reader Chris Kirkham of Cal/OSHA Enforcement in San Francisco writes that our Oct. 23 story about the proposed changes to the heat illness prevention standard misstated requirements for shade. We stated: “Farm labor organizations also say that the shade requirements do not go far enough. It only requires shade for 25% [of a work shift]….’ …
As the one-year anniversary of a deadly fire at a University of California, Los Angeles research laboratory nears, three UCLA workers appeared before the Cal/OSHA Advisory Committee to talk about continuing problems at the school’s labs. Administrative specialist Judith Sweeney from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, lab worker Rita Kern and Clinical Study Coordinator …
LOS ANGELES — On the heels of a Fed-OSHA evaluation outlining numerous deficiencies in Nevada OSHA’s program and triggered by a spate of workplace fatalities along the famed Las Vegas “Strip,” the federal agency announced it will similarly evaluate other state programs, including Cal/OSHA. Before that happens, though, California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health …
A slumping California economy and furloughs to Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) inspectors led to 39% fewer on-site inspections in the first quarter of 2009, compared to the previous year and alleged violations cited down 30%, according to statistics released by the DOSH Program Office. Each major industrial group saw decreases in both …
A former member of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) Legal Unit peppered DOSH Chief Counsel Michael Mason at the Nov. 5 Cal/OSHA Advisory Committee meeting with questions about a 2007 decision not to challenge the Appeals Board on its Harris Construction decision after reconsideration (DAR). Implicit in the line of questioning was …
While California employment saw a modest rise in 2008, workplace injuries and illnesses continued their steady downward trend, according to statistics from the state Division of Labor Statistics and Research. Nationally, the injury and illness rate dropped below 4 cases per 100 full-time workers, continuing a significant decline since 2003. California recordable cases and rates …
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is investigating the Oct. 30 fatality of a roofing worker in the Sierra foothills town of Jamestown. The worker was employed by Steve Bledshaw Roofing. He slipped from an A-frame roof and fell about 20 feet to the ground headfirst and died at the scene. DOSH will not …
While the Division of Occupational Safety and Health is still considering whether to appeal a Superior Court judge’s Oct. 15 decision to enjoin DOSH from obtaining investigatory information from an adult film-oriented health care clinic in the so-called “Patient Zero” case, the agency says it will fight the clinic’s refusal to provide any information at …