California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health is investigating an incident in the Sacramento Valley town of Willows in which a foreman for an agricultural concern was seriously injured during a pumpkin operation Oct. 30. Vidal Martinez, 46, was reportedly moving pumpkins by auger from a field to a storage vessel when his foot became …
In a ruling handed down earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with San Francisco’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the issue of whether employers must pay for the time workers take to put on and take off personal protective equipment. The ruling settles conflicting opinions, with the First Circuit court, based in …
The University of Michigan Center for Occupational Health and Safety Engineering announces its annual occupational ergonomics short courses in Los Angeles. The series includes two courses, back to back, beginning Feb. 20 at the Four Points Hotel at Los Angeles International Airport. First is “Occupational Ergonomics: Work Evaluation and Prevention of Upper Limb and Back …
California’s Occupational Health Branch (OHB) of the California Dept. of Health Services recently looked at three California on-the-job incidents, two of them fatal, which illustrate some of the grim statistics the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has compiled over the past decade or so. They also illustrate the ease with which simple inexperience or …
Cal/OSH Appeals Board correctly decided that the state’s lockout/tagout safety standard also requires employers to block out moving parts to protect workers, a California appellate court has ruled. In doing so, the Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, affirmed the principle that courts defer to an administrative agency’s interpretation, unless it flies in the face …
Cal/OSH Standards Board convenes an ad hoc advisory committee Nov. 30 in Sacramento to consider proposed changes to Title 8 to address the safe use of dust collectors in woodworking facilities. So-called “enclosureless” (sock-type) dust collectors, which are small and inexpensive, are commonplace in the woodworking industry and Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) …
Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has openings for junior and assistant safety engineers in its San Mateo, Oakland and Fremont district offices. Juniors and assistants are the first working level for safety engineers. They assist journeyman engineers and perform assigned professional engineering work, including routine compliance inspections and accident investigations, and prepare information …
Cal-OSHA Reporter has learned that Professional Growers, Inc., aka GroWest, has dropped its lawsuit over crane operator certification tests administered only in English. The action came at a case management conference in September that followed a June 27 ruling denying a temporary restraining order against the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. GroWest sought to …