At the close of last week’s marathon Joint Legislative Hearing in the wake of a critical State Auditor’s report on Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, chairman John Harabedian concluded, “Cal/OSHA not only has a staffing problem, it has a leadership problem.” It doesn’t appear that comment presages a change at the top of …
The California Department of Public Health has confirmed 118 silicosis cases in 2025 from the engineered stone industry, just three fewer than the total for all of 2024. “We’re on track to significantly exceed the 2024 numbers,” says Michael Wilson, Ph.D, MPH, CIH, senior safety engineer for the Research and Standards-Health unit of Cal/OSHA’s Division …
A Cal/OSHA advisory committee met for two days recently to continue its deliberations about how or even whether to regulate the increasingly sophisticated autonomous technology used in agriculture. Proponents say the machines work better than a human mind in hazard recognition and eliminate many hazards created by having employees on tractors. Skeptics, mostly representing labor, …
The Office of Administrative Law and the Cal/OSHA Standards Board withdrew from consideration the “Confined Space in Construction Clean-up” rulemaking, which the Board adopted in April. Board staff had to reword several sections. It issued a 15-Day Notice of Proposed Modifications. Stakeholder comments on the changes are due by August 25th. Pulling back a package …
Cal/OSHA, including the Enforcement Branch, the Consultation Service, and the Appeals and Standards Boards, will receive slight increases in the approved 2025-26 budget from what the governor proposed in May. The budget was finalized and signed into law at the end of June. The state Department of Finance recently released the details. The Cal/OSHA program …