Osha

State regulators have fined two warehouse operating companies more than a quarter of a million dollars for allowing unsafe working conditions at four San Bernardino County distribution centers. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health said Wednesday that it issued $256,445 in citations for more than 60 violations found during a recent inspection of warehouses in Chino. Cited were warehouse owner National Distribution Centers and its temporary staffing contractor, Tri State Staffing.

California workplace safety officials have issued $100,000 in fines against Napa State Hospital in connection with the October slaying of a psychiatric technician, contending that the facility neglected to restrict the movements of violent patients — including the man charged in the strangling. Cal/OSHA issued the citations Tuesday against the beleaguered psychiatric hospital, which has experienced steep increases in the number of patient assaults on peers and staff despite a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit in 2006 to impose reforms there and at three other state hospitals.

Public health advocates, porn industry representatives and performers past and present gathered in Oakland on Monday to discuss workplace protection law and whether a more tailored regulation specifically requiring condom use on adult film sets is necessary. The meeting was the fourth held by California's Occupational Health and Safety Administration to invite public input and air disagreements about industry practices and the status of existing law. A petition filed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation late last year asked Cal/OSHA asking the agency to amend its regulations to directly require condom use during vaginal and anal sex in the adult film industry.

First in a series of candidate profiles Early on a winter morning in 2007, a 25-year old Mexican farmhand was crushed beneath a tractor on Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado's family farm, sparking an investigation that resulted in citations for four workplace safety violations, including failure to have a spotter direct the tractor driver and failure to have someone on the scene with first-aid certification. Although the young employee's death was an isolated tragedy, the run-in with regulators was part of a pattern for Agro-Jal Farming Enterprises, the farm in Santa Maria that pays Maldonado a six-figure salary to serve as controller.

The U.S. Labor Department issued a critical report on enforcement of workplace safety in California on Tuesday and ordered the state to fix myriad problems, including poor training of safety inspectors and delays in responding to complaints. Federal officials took aim at the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health, saying, among other things, that inspectors do not always review a company's history statewide before deciding whether to cite it for repeat violations. They also found that the division's appeals process "falls short.

A state investigation found that a 2009 roller coaster accident that injured two riders at Knott's Berry Farm could have been prevented with proper maintenance, casting blame on both the theme park and the ride manufacturer. Xcelerator, a $13-million, hydraulic-launch accelerator coaster that opened at the Buena Park theme park in 2002, reopened Monday evening after Knott's made modifications required by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. In a statement, the theme park said the state's report "identified shortcomings in the manufacturer's instructions regarding the inspection and maintenance of the cable" and that the state agency had "required Knott's Berry Farm to put into place additional safeguards to determine cable viability and to work with the manufacturer to revise maintenance instructions."

Using a new state law for the first time, state regulators Monday issued fines to a private hospital and a police and fire department for failing to report and prevent the spread of bacterial meningitis. The failure to follow safety and reporting protocol, regulators said, sickened two workers who ended up unconscious in intensive care. Alta Bates Sutter Medical Center in Oakland was fined $101,485 by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health for 10 health and safety violations after officials failed to immediately notify public authorities and protect staff when an infected patient arrived Dec. 3, 2009, regulators said Monday.

A year before a UCLA staff research assistant was fatally burned in a lab fire, a graduate student was seriously injured in a similar accident that university officials failed to report to state regulators, records released Friday show. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health this week fined UCLA $23,900 for the earlier incident, which occurred in November 2007 -- 13 months before Sheharbano "Sheri" Sangji suffered burns that took her life and prompted a campuswide review of lab safety.

The head of the state Senate's Labor Committee accused a workplace safety board Wednesday of being biased toward employers and ignoring a law that requires fines for failing to report on-the-job injuries. After a hearing, Sen. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) said he might introduce legislation that could lead to criminal charges against board members if they continue to disregard the law that calls for a $5,000 fine for employers' failing to report accidents in a timely manner. The hearing came after a Times investigation last fall that found that the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health appeals board repeatedly dismissed and reduced the penalties levied by division inspectors, even in situations in which workers had died or were seriously injured.