After a more-than six-year hiatus, Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health is reassembling its Health Effects Advisory Committee (HEAC) to study possible revisions to permissible exposure limits (PELs) for airborne contaminants. The committee last met in December 2019 and was supposed to meet again in May 2020, but the meeting was canceled due to …
Another bill is before the California Senate with requirements for Cal/OSHA. This one would require it to consider a regulation to protect outdoor workers along the California border from what the bill calls “transboundary pollution.” SB 1046 would require Cal/OSHA to propose to the Standards Board by January 1st, 2030, a standard covering park rangers, …
Despite the demise of a prominent autonomous tractor company at the heart of experimental variances at two California wineries, Cal/OSHA says the variances remain in place – at least for the time being. The Division of Occupational Safety and Health is evaluating two separate variances involving other autonomous equipment companies. Autonomous agricultural equipment continues to …
Thus sayeth the Bard to the Cal/OSHA Standards Board: Get thee to a regulation! California’s date growers have been using modern safety techniques for date palms since the early part of this century, but only through Cal/OSHA variances. There have been discussions in recent years about a formal standard recognizing the practice, but so far, …
Cal/OSHA and Sutter Bay Hospitals, which operates Mills-Peninsula Medical Center, have agreed to a $79,000 (70%) of the proposed penalty, down from a proposed $112,500, in the wake of a February 2024 workplace violence incident. A 53-year-old homeless man allegedly stabbed a 53-year-old employee who had asked him if he needed help after the man …
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board has written to district attorneys in the seven counties with the vast majority of silicosis cases, asking them to join Cal/OSHA “in a unified fight” to stop the disease, caused by exposure to workers who “cut, grind and polish stone countertops.” The request was sent to the D.A.s in Los Angeles, …
As California’s legislative season sprouts, two bills of interest to the occupational safety and health community have been introduced. Neither appears particularly significant, but one should trigger some debate. That bill, AB 2499 by Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D-Gardena), would require Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health to submit a regulatory proposal to the Standards …