Fed-OSHA has issued a direct final rule in late February on testing roll-over protective structures (ROPS) used to protect employees who operate wheel-type tractors. The new rule is the old rule: OSHA went back to the agency’s original construction and agriculture standards, which had been replaced 10 years ago with references to national consensus standards …
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health says it will adopt federal revisions to the hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) standard verbatim using the state Labor Code’s Hortcher provisions, Cal-OSHA Reporter has learned. The process allows the board to bypass the customary public comment period to expedite rulemaking. But Cal/OSH Standards Board will take public comments on …
While Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) and Cal/OSH Standards Board worked to craft an emergency regulation to help protect workers from heat illness last year, the Division used a variety of in-place regulations to cite employers in 2005 cases where employees died or were hospitalized during a series of heat waves. Conversely, when …
The American Society of Safety Engineers’ Bay Area Construction Specialty Section will present an overview of the new OSHA (and soon-to-be Cal/OSHA) hexavalent chromium standard at its April 18 meeting in Oakland. Peter Jaramillo, CIH, principal of Risk Control Consulting, is the guest speaker. The meeting is at 11:30 a.m. at Francesco’s Restaurant, 8520 Pardee …
Many parts of California are seeing a building boom, with two-story houses sprouting up on postage-stamp-size lots packed together in the name of preventing sprawl. Under a proposal formally published by Cal/OSH Standards Board, workers who install the roofs on production-type homes will have a clear chalk line on when fall protection must be used …
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, lost-time injuries and illnesses were down across the country in 2004 more than 4 percent, a decline of about 56,000 incidents. In all there were 1.3 million incidents requiring days away from work that year. In 2004 there were a total of 4.3 million nonfatal injuries and …
A maintenance crew took an ill-fated shortcut that led to an explosion at Ontario’s Sterigenics International, Inc., last August, according to a report issued by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). The blast injured four workers and disrupted production at the facility for nine months. The Aug. 19, 2004, incident occurred after …
Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has released its 2005-2006 Highest-Hazard Industry List, which the Division uses to select employers for programmed and intensive inspections. The list represents industries with lost-workday injury and illness rates higher than 200 percent of the statewide private industry average. Cal/OSHA’s High Hazard Enforcement Unit randomly selects individual employers …