Tagged in: Cal/OSHA
Cal/OSHA’s Identity Question
It has been an article of faith around these parts that “Cal/OSHA” refers to all of the components of the state program, but a recent note from the communications team at the Department of Industrial Relations throws this assumption into question. In a recent Cal-OSHA Reporter article about the adoption of the Confined Spaces in …
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How Effective is Heat Illness Standard?
Research by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute concludes that California’s first-in-the-nation heat illness prevention standard resulted in substantial declines in work-related heat illnesses. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based organization states that data show the standard, General Industry Safety Orders §3395, has decreased the number of work-related cases on hot days by up to 27% in agriculture, 25% …
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Multiemployer Scaffold Case
A Los Angeles-area construction contractor has settled its Cal/OSHA citations case following a September 2022 scaffold collapse that seriously injured a worker. But, as so often happens in multi-employer cases, the direct employer in this instance still faces six serious violations and more than $144,000 in proposed penalties. The employee of Sunland Scaffolds, also based …
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Third Time’s a Charm
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Board Approves Limited Bird Flu Committee
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board declined a request from an advocacy organization for emergency protections for agricultural workers from avian influenza. However, the Board did approve an advisory committee to study possible reforms to its standard for zoonotic transmissible diseases, General Industry Safety Orders §5199.1. The emergency request came from Valley Voices, an activist organization involved …
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OSH Bills to Governor’s Desk – Sept 19, 2025
The state legislature has approved three bills of interest to California’s occupational safety and health community, and they are now awaiting the governor’s action. The foremost of these bills is SB 20 (Senator Caroline Menjivar, D-Van Nuys), aimed at addressing the silicosis crisis in the engineered stone industry. SB 20 no longer would create a …
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How Cal/OSHA Sees Its Progress
Cal/OSHA’s “SOAR” report for fiscal 2024, the State OSHA Annual Report, measures how the program did against its strategic plan. That plan, which was supposed to run until 2023, was extended through 2025, and the agency reports that it met some of its objectives, particularly outreach and education, and came close on others. SOAR is …
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