Cal OSHA is great. We once had a pressure vessel delivered and I discovered a small ding in it. We called the mfr and without looking they said "don't worry about it". We called the cal osha pressure vessel unit about it (they had issued our permit after all) and 5 minutes later had a call from the manufacturer asking what the hell was going on. 45 minutes later someone from cal osha showed unannounced (from Oakland to Redwood City in 45 minutes in the middle of the day -- he must have hopped in his car as soon as we got off the phone wit the receptionist). He decided it was safe and gave us a ticket as evidence.
As it happened we were being sued by a welding contractor company who'd sent us unqualified personnel who were not making safe steam welds. We had to cut them all out and we all had them around the shop as "trophies". It was an expensive lawsuit -- hundreds of $K. Since he was a nice guy and clearly knew his stuff, when he asked about them we showed him some and told him about firing the contractor. He said, "give me a copy of that lawsuit". And a few days later that was the end of it!
Funny thing about steam pressure vessels: there's no safety barriers against them blowing up (just tons of rules to try to keep that from happening). If that vessel had exploded it would likely have taken out the entire city block, and possibly the elementary school across the street. So we were delighted to follow all the rules. When I was perched on a ladder tweaking some instrumentation I was comforted that that if anything went wrong I'd never know.
Some of the California county toxics agencies on the other hand....some too strict and some, IMHO, excessively lax. Word to the wise: f you want to run a (legal!!) drug lab do it in San Mateo county not Santa Clara County.
I mean crap like the Santa Clara County inspector insisting that our solvents go into metal secondary containment because they are potentially flammable. But they are corrosive and per the MSDS shouldn't be in metal, though plastic is safe. When I asked what she wanted she said, "Are you arguing with me?" In the end I put metal trays (turns out commercial pan pizza pans meet the spec) under the plastic bins.
When we moved in there was a copper pipe from one lab to another marked "nitrogen". The previous tenant had had the building declared safe (we had the paperwork) and moved out. When it was our time to move out (raised a large B round, were hiring like mad!) we couldn't get the facility cleared because of this damned copper pipe. Not only did they want it removed but they wanted remediation (I guess in case nitrogen leaked into the atmosphere). I am a packrat so had the previous tenant's paperwork and only that spared us the agony. We were manufacturing product for human clinical trials there -- the last thing we would want was anything toxic or dangerous around!!
(the city of Santa Clara had a nice map showing where the water came from and we were on well supply. For the reason you mention we had bottled water brought in, something I would normally refuse to pay for. If you live in Santa Clara don't worry -- only the industrial districts have this problem. The residences are on a safe supply, I think it's even hatch hetchy water).
California OSHA is a very different beast from federal OSHA. My wife works in environmental safety (factories are an environment) and she refers to it as "Strict AF".
Federal OSHA is basically the bare minimum as to what can be implemented. Most states layer on additional regulations as they see fit. California's Department of Labor, "Cal/OSHA", has the most stringent standards beyond federal OSHA's standards.
They are called OSHA-approved state plans. They have to be at least as strict as federal OSHA to be approved. See the OSHA state plan FAQ[1] for more info.
Honestly the OSHA enforcement I've seen has been a joke.
One summer when I worked a landscaping job, my employer was fined $5,000 because I was caught using a weed-eater while wearing shorts. (It was hot out and I didn't care if I got an occasional pebble flung at my shins.) My coworkers had similar stories.
That seems like the point. People learn what risks to take from experience; the employer has more experience than new/young employees, so you force them to care. I "didn't care" initially about breathing drywall dust, but later I changed my mind.
I guarantee that if you drove around and looked at people using weed-eaters that day, at least 1/3rd of them would have been wearing shorts. Heck, I bet the majority of them weren't wearing eye protection.
I'm an adult and I can accurately evaluate the risk of pebbles hitting my shins. Unlike dust or toxins, there's no lag between my actions and noticeable harm. Also, the maximum possible harm is limited. Nobody was ever crippled or killed by a weed-eater throwing pebbles at their legs. OSHA's action in this case was entirely unnecessary.
Stories from my coworkers were equally ridiculous. One time the company got fined because a worker was wearing earplugs instead of earmuffs. Both block sound just fine! If anything, the earplugs should work better because safety glasses can break the seal of earmuffs.
Doesn't that prove my point? Weed wackers have been around for 50 years, used by hundreds of millions of people, and the worst you could find was a freak accident that was treated successfully. I was far more likely to suffer from heat stroke than from any weed wacker related injury.
No it doesn't, it's also not the only thing that turned up when I googled 'weed wacker safety' just the most interesting. Obviously, it shows that there are more things hidden in grass than 'just pebbles' like you insisted.
Plenty of people get lacerations and other injuries from weedwackers but your employer has a duty of care to you to prevent the possibility of that happening. This has been codified by safety laws.
If you're using a weedwacker in your personal life feel free to do it nude for all I care but as others have pointed out if it's optional and unenforced that effectively means that employers won't do it.
Legitimately don't understand your comment – how is enforcement "a joke", but then you immediately give an example of enforcement being strict and effective?
What? It was arbitrary and ineffective. OSHA never busted people for actual dangerous stuff like being high on the job, lacking eye protection, driving without a seatbelt, or smoking next to gas cans. It was always stupid bullshit like wearing shorts on a hot day.
After the fine, I wore shorts for the rest of the summer. So did plenty of other workers. OSHA didn't seem to notice.
