A 30-year-old Paso Robles worker was killed Nov. 4 when a 55-gallon barrel he was cutting suddenly exploded. The incident at Advanced Powder Coating took the life of Marco Antonio Bautista. According to a newspaper report, the worker was using a torch to cut the barrel, which might have contained varnish residue, when it blew …
A University of California, Davis, epidemiologist who has questioned the accuracy of government injury and illness statistics was honored by a federal agency for his work to find the true costs of the incidents behind those statistics. Ironically, the award came just two days after the U.S. Department of Labor released its annual injury and …
Among the almost $7 million in Susan Harwood Training Grants awarded by Fed-OSHA throughout the country were two to California organizations. The annual Harwood grants support workplace safety and health training programs that educate workers in high-hazard industries, workers with limited English proficiency, hard-to-reach employees and small businesses. Port of San Diego Ship Repair Association has …
As we noted in our Oct. 24 edition, Cal-OSHA Reporter is making the switch to an all-electronic publication this month. The first step will be to eliminate paper and deliver the newsletter in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format, followed by a migration to a daily, online-only publication. The PDF switch will be in the coming weeks; …
SACRAMENTO — An emotional plea from the grieving parents of a man killed while performing volunteer work at a Central Coast mission is prompting regulatory action at Cal/OSHA. While much remains to be done before a formal regulatory action can be presented to the regulated public, a two-day advisory committee in late October clearly showed …
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) increased its on-site inspections in the first half of 2008 by 16% over the comparable period in 2007, resulting in citations for more than 11,000 violations, an 8.5% rise over the first six months last year, according to statistics released by the Division. DOSH conducted 5,403 such …
A Sacramento County Superior Court judge has ruled that the Cal/OSH Appeals Board wrongly sided with United Airlines in vacating citations related to its failure to provide gloves for workers, and has ordered the case back to the board for a decision based on the “proper legal standard.” The ruling is “a major victory” for …
Workers in the United States face far more injuries and illnesses than reported by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, costing society in excess of $150 billion and leading to more than 70,000 deaths and millions of non-fatal cases, a University of California, Davis researcher says. Dr. J. Paul Leigh, professor of public health sciences, …