A divided state Supreme Court ruled in April that a businessman should get workers’ compensation benefits for frostbite injuries he suffered after passing out in the snow after a sales trip to northern Wisconsin. William E. Larsen was subjected to subzero temperatures outside a mobile home he was trying to enter when he’d passed out …
While the likelihood of rolling blackouts does not pose a new workplace hazard in California, it should serve as a reminder to the state’s employers that they must take these events into consideration and work to protect their workers, Cal/OSHA Chief John Howard said in a recent statement. “California employers . have always faced the …
The Cal/OSH Standards Board will hold a public hearing June 21 in Oakland on proposed changes to General Industry Safety Orders (GISO) 5193 in the wake of revisions to the federal bloodborne pathogens standard. The hearing, which will be part of the board’s regular meeting, will also include proposed revisions to the Electrical Safety Orders …
By a majority vote following a public hearing, the following revisions to Title 8 safety orders have been adopted by the Cal/OSH Standards Board. They have been approved by the Office of Administrative Law and are now in the California Code of Regulations. CONFINED SPACES: Revisions to General Industry Safety Orders 5157-58 and Ship Building, …
Here’s what’s happening in the California legislature with a number of bills of interest to the occupational safety and health community: Appropriations hearings: Three bills have been set for hearing before their respective Appropriations committees. AB 1069, which deals with labor discrimination complaints and other matters under the jurisdiction of the state Labor Commissioner, was …
The Cal/OSH Standards Board granted a single variance at its April 19 meeting, reflecting a continuing trend toward fewer variance requests: Michael’s Distribution Center, Lancaster: Permanent variance from General Industry Safety Orders 3210(b) regarding the guardrail requirements for elevated work locations. The center contains a three-story modular steel platform known as a “pic module,” which …
Gov. Gray Davis has designated May as “Safe Jobs for Youth Month,” to make employers, teenagers, parents and teachers aware of the hazards young people face on the job. Each year, 70 teens die from on-the-job injuries and 70,000 are injured seriously enough to require emergency room treatment nationwide. UC-Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP) …
SACRAMENTO – The subcommittee that has been working diligently on crafting what would be a first-of-its-kind standard setting qualifications for crane operators and requiring their certification is “90 percent there,” as committee chairman Mike Manieri put it. But working out that final 10 percent is proving the hardest part. The subcommittee, composed of crane industry, …