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Cal/OSHA stepping up heat illness prevention enforcement, outreach
Outreach and education events aimed at protecting workers from heat illness have increased over the first six months of this year as has enforcement of the nation’s first heat illness prevention regulations, according to figures released by the Department of Industrial Relation’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA).
Cal/OSHA is on pace to exceed the number of heat illness prevention inspections, with 659 heat-related inspections to date in 2008 compared to 1,018 for all of 2007.
Cal/OSHA has issued more than 242 citations since the summer began, primarily for failing to have written heat illness prevention plans. During heat waves, special compliance teams are dispatched to outdoor work sites to ensure workers are being properly protected.
LWDA and the Department of Industrial Relations are working with the Attorney General and local District Attorneys to build criminal cases against employers who disregard the law and the DIR’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement will pursue license revocation where necessary. Cal/OSHA inspectors have issued two stop-work orders to employers this year for continued failure to provide a safe and healthful workplace.
In addition to the enforcement activities, Cal/OSHA has conducted heat illness seminars, on-site consultations, and outreach events throughout the state. Cal/OSHA has conducted 380 heat illness seminars so far this year compared to 284 for all of 2007.
On June 9, the Labor and Workforce Development Agency sent letters to all 106,261 California employers with outdoor operations reminding them of their responsibilities under the heat illness regulations.
SAFETY RECALL NOTICE
NOTE: Hammer drill boxes will be marked as 1191VSRK. The “K” indicates that the hammer drill is packaged with a case in a kit configuration.
All hammer drills with serial numbers beginning with the number seven (7) are affected.
STOP USING IMMEDIATELY!
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Report: Hispanics Dying on the Job at Higher Rates than Others
June 6, 2008
Hispanics are among the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. workforce, and they also have a higher work-related injury death rate than all other workers. According to the top story in today`s MMWR (www.cdc.gov/mmwr), the annual work-related injury death rate for Hispanic workers exceeded the rate for all U.S. workers every year from 1992 through 2006, with the exception of 1995. In 2006, the rate for Hispanic workers was 5.0 per 100,000 Hispanic workers, compared with rates of 4.0 for all workers, 4.0 for non-Hispanic white workers, and 3.7 for non-Hispanic black workers. Significantly, the report points out that, from 2003 to 2006, the work-related injury death rate for foreign-born Hispanic workers was 5.9, compared with a rate of 3.5 for U.S.-born Hispanic workers.
Commenting on the MMWR report in a teleconference yesterday, NIOSH`s Dr. Sherry Baron, coordinator of the Occupational Health Disparities Program, noted that the largest portion of deaths among Hispanic workers during the study period occurred in the construction industry, representing about one-third of all deaths. "Since 1997, the most common causes of deaths have been highway incidents and falls to a lower level," Baron said. "Falls have emerged as an increasingly important cause of work-related injury deaths and was the number one cause in 2006. The number of falls as a cause of death increased 370 percent between 1992 and 2006."
Baron added that based on available information, the higher rates of Hispanics` job-related deaths result from a combination of factors. "Clearly the most important factor is that they are disproportionately working in riskier jobs such as construction. Other factors include inadequate control of recognizing safety hazards and inadequate training and supervision of workers, which is often exacerbated by issues of language and literacy, especially for foreign-born Hispanic workers," she said.
Scott Richardson, director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics` Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, noted that Hispanics` higher work-related death has correlated to their growth in the U.S. population. "If you look at just demographic trends, in 1980 only three percent of the U.S. population was Hispanic, and in 2005 nearly 15 percent were Hispanic, so that`s been quite a growth, driven primarily by immigration in the Hispanic population of the U.S.," he said.
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Report: Top OSHA Violations
June 1, 2008
• Scaffolding
· Hazard Communications
· Fall Protection
· Respiratory Prot.
· Lockout / Tagout
· Forklift Hazards
· Electrical Wiring
· Machine Guarding
· Ladders
· Electrical General
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