Cal/OSHA’s regulatory solution to the exposure of construction workers to silica dust is headed for a Dec. 13 public hearing before Cal/OSH Standards Board. The proposal now is in a 45-day comment period that ends with the hearing in Sacramento. Another proposal, on haulage-vehicle brake maintenance, made necessary by a Cal/OSH Appeals Board decision, also …
Four California organizations will receive almost $1 million in safety and health training grants under Fed-OSHA’s Susan Harwood program. The grants represent almost one-tenth of the $10.1 million awarded this year nationally. The California grants include: Ammonia Safety & Training Institute, Watsonville: $207,250 to expand its Safety Day training programs, which address process safety management …
By a majority vote following a public hearing, the following revisions to a Title 8 safety orders have been adopted by Cal/OSH Standards Board. They have been approved by the Office of Administrative Law and now are in the California Code of Regulations. HORIZONTAL SLIDING GATES: New General Industry Safety Orders §3324 was heard at …
Recent outbreaks of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that killed teenagers in New York and Virginia and infected others in the Sacramento area bring up painful memories for Steve Rank, a member of the Cal/OSH Standards Board and a safety official for the Ironworkers Union. Rank had his own recent and scary episode with MRSA and …
Inadequate communication and a lack of splash guards around a coker drum at a Rodeo refinery led to a May 16 incident that seriously burned a ConocoPhillips Co. worker. As a result California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is citing the facility for six alleged serious violations, including one willful. The worker safety …
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is investigating a number of firefighter injuries during recent operations to battle wildfires in Southern California. On Oct. 23, a seasonal firefighter from Valley Center was burned fighting a fire in El Cajon, near San Diego. He was taken to University of California, San Diego Burn Center. …
SACRAMENTO – Two new safety order revision proposals by the Cal/OSH Standards Board appear not to be on the radar screen of the regulated public. The only comments they generated at an Oct. 18 public hearing were by the board itself. The comment-generating proposal revises GISO §3228 on fire- and life-safety exits. It is based …
Cal/OSHA’s Health Expert Advisory Committee (HEAC) on permissible exposure limits for airborne contaminants meets Nov. 2 in Oakland. HEAC is tasked with developing recommended PELs for four substances. The PELs for dichloroacetic acid, N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone, hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen chloride would be the first under the Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s new PEL-setting procedures. HEAC …