SAN DIEGO – If you have a powered industrial truck (PIT) equipped with a seat belt, you’d better ensure that your operators start using it, under revised rules adopted Jan. 15 by the Cal/OSH Standards Board. The board also adopted a regulatory revision on installation of mechanical refrigeration units and voted on a petition decision on …
A Cal/OSHA advisory committee that convened Dec. 10 to study proposed new requirements for securing furniture and equipment in workplaces against earthquakes has decided it just doesn’t have enough to back it up. The Cal/OSH Standards Board staff is terminating rulemaking on the proposal, although committee chair Conrad Tolson says the meeting identified a number …
From the article “Little Voltage on HVESOProposal” (Jan. 9, 2009, p. 9362 ): “The industry already is voluntarily complying with the current NFPA 70E.” [Editor’s note: HVESO stands for High Voltage Electrical Safety Orders. NFPA is National Fire Protection Association.] Riiight… The current NFPA 70E is the recently released 2009 version. The echoes are still resounding …
California’s 10 chapters of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) have written to U.S. Secretary of Labor Designee Hilda Solis to urge her to appoint Dr. John Howard as the next administrator of Fed-OSHA. Solis, most recently a member of Congress, was a California Assembly member and a state Senator and she was in …
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is investigating several recent workplace incidents, including three fatalities and a near-fatality. Dec. 30: The DOSH Van Nuys District Office is investigating an incident in Calabasas involving an employee of Valley Crest Cos. The employee was working on a hillside and fell approximately 15 feet, fatally striking his …
The 2009 California State University Northridge Technology Symposium asks the question, “The Legacy of Endocrine Disruptors: Should I Be Worried?” The event is Feb. 19 from 4 to 10 p.m. at the University Student Union. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that act like hormones and disrupt the physiological function of natural hormones. They include plant constituents, …
Candice Traeger will continue at the helm of Cal/OSHA’s Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board for another four years. With the board’s case backlog becoming a thing of the past, and despite some decided controversial methods to whittle it down, the chair promises that 2009 will start an era of “customer service.” Traeger was confirmed …
A summertime incident at a San Diego recycling company that cost a worker half his arm has resulted in three serious and numerous general violations alleged against the employer by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH). The Division has proposed penalties of than $41,000 in the case. On July 16, a scrap metal …