The Standards Board was set to vote on revisions to General Industry Safety Orders §4530 in January, but a late flurry of comments by the regulated public caused it to postpone action. With subsequent changes, the proposal was finalized and the board approved the package March 19. The rulemaking effort got started when the Division …
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has launched an awareness campaign on heat illness prevention in advance of the state’s hot-weather season with a well-publicized mid-March training event in the Central Valley. In doing so, DOSH also announced its decision on an important interpretation of the heat illness prevention standard, General Industry Safety …
As promised by California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg at the Jan. 7 confirmation hearing for Cal/OSH Appeals Board Chair Candice Traeger, the board has a new labor member, after several years of vacancy. Former Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) Chief Arthur Carter, 67, has been named to the post. His appointment, …
With considerable appreciation and many laughs, a packed room at a Jack London Square hotel sent Larry McCune off into his “third” retirement. McCune, a longtime Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) official, who also spent two decades as a safety manager for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., officially retired Feb. 28 as the …
By a majority vote following a public hearing, the following revisions to a Title 8 safety order have been adopted by the Cal/OSH Standards Board, approved by the Office of Administrative Law and now are in the California Code of Regulations. MECHANICAL REFRIGERATION: Revisions to General Industry Safety Orders §3248 were heard at the July …
Cal/OSHA’s Health Expert Advisory Committee (HEAC) will meet March 25 in Oakland to discuss possible action on permissible exposure limits (PELs) for a number of chemicals. The committee meets at 9:30 a.m. in room 1304 at the Harris State Building, 1515 Clay St. The committee will consider the following substances: Carbon disulfide and sulfuric acid: Additional …
A study recently released by the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that Fed-OSHA investigations into worker safety whistleblower complaints have uneven quality and consistency and the agency isn’t providing the equipment, training and legal assistance that investigators need to do their jobs. There is no comparable study of whistleblower complaints filed with the California …
A reader passes along the following list of unusual terms found in the Cal/OSHA regulations. See how many you already know. For the ones you don’t, look up the definitions at http://www.dir.ca.gov/Samples/search/query.htm. And if you know of any other strange words or terms in California’s safety standards, please pass them along to the editor at …