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On December 14, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) approved an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for respirable crystalline silica to protect workers from silicosis, the state Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) announced. The ETS goes into effect on December 29. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) proposed the ETS […]
The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB), which sets workplace safety and health standards for the state, released revised text of its draft standard for heat illness prevention in indoor spaces. The board updated its draft standard in response to comments made in an earlier draft. Changes to the proposed regulation include: Comments […]
A new law recently enacted in California requires employers to implement a workplace violence prevention plan and could prove influential if other states follow suit. On Sept. 30, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 553 into law, requiring nearly all businesses to have their plans in place by July 1, 2024. Exempted from the law are […]
On August 10, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) announced it will increase its physical presence in Fresno, Santa Barbara, and Riverside counties. The move will enable agency field inspectors to respond more efficiently in the Central Valley, Inland Empire, and Central Coast areas, according to Cal/OSHA. The state agency will start […]
Four petitions for review were filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the EPA’s reinstatement of the waiver that allows the State of California to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from motor vehicles. The case presents significant questions regarding state and federal sovereignty, and any decisions reached in the matter have the potential […]
Parter Medical Products, Inc., of Carson, California, failed to protect its employees from overexposure to ethylene oxide (EtO), a toxic chemical, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), prompting the agency to issue 18 citations, including 6 citations for willful, serious violations. Penalties total $838,800, the state agency announced March 21. […]
California’s nonemergency COVID-19 prevention regulations (California Code of Regulations Title 8 sections 3205 through 3205.3) took effect February 3 following approval by the state’s Office of Administrative Law. The new regulations, which take the place of the state’s emergency temporary standards (ETSs), remain in effect through February 3, 2025, and recordkeeping provisions of the rules […]
Three bills recently signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsome are expected to clear the path for the state to meet its stringent carbon reduction/neutrality goals in 2030, 2038, and 2045. The bills address new regulation of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) and carbon dioxide (CO2) removal (CDR) projects in the state. Senate […]
The California Senate passed the Climate Corporate Accountability Act (SB 260) on January 26, 2022, which, if passed into law, will require corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue to report all scopes of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the California secretary of state. Reporting entities. The bill would require businesses with […]
The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board December 16 readopted the state’s COVID-19 prevention emergency temporary standard (ETS), with revisions. The revised ETS incorporates the latest recommendations from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). The readopted state ETS does not contain the vaccine-or-testing requirements of the November 5 federal ETS, which was under […]