The governor’s office has appointed Derek Urwin, a firefighter and researcher, as the Cal/OSHA Standards Board’s occupational safety representative. He replaces Laura Stock, who is the Director of Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkely. She was working from an expired term and was removed this summer after criticizing the adminstration in May for ordering …
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board denied a petition by a Kansas electrical lineman to require cup holders on aerial devices used in this work. The Board said the request was not only unnecessary but could pose unique hazards. Although the Board doesn’t mention it in its decision, petitioner Landon Dees has an obvious interest in seeing …
In response to requests from industry stakeholders, industrial hygienists, and Fed-OSHA, the Cal/OSHA Standards Board has revised the proposed permanent version of its silica reforms aimed at engineered stone shops. Comments on the 15-Day Notice of Proposed Modifications are due by late September. The revisions address concerns from the tile industry worried it could be …
A petition to the Cal/OSHA Standards Board seeks to optionally add an internationally recognized pictogram to the Cal/OSHA requirement for exit signs in the workplace. The request might also require approval by other agencies. Carsten M. Jonas petitioned the Board for revisions to General Industry Safety Orders §3216. That safety order requires that employers post …
Cal/OSHA is taking its first steps toward adopting new rules that establish “enterprise-wide” and “egregious” violations – and the accompanying penalties. Stakeholders weighed in on the proposed rules earlier this week, although the participation was less than expected. “These regulations have significance,” says Bruce Wick, director of risk management for Housing Contractors of California, addressing …
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board has named Millicent Barajas, a career civil servant, its new executive officer. She replaced Christina Shupe, who left the Board several months ago to join a water agency in the Central Valley. Barajas has spent the last 14 years at the California Department of Technology. In that agency, she provided strategic …