Cal-OSHA sets rules on keeping workers safe from heat.

A Year after a series of heat-related fatalities among farm workers in the Central Valley, the California Occupational Health and Safety Administration's Standards Board has adopted regulations to prevent illnesses and deaths from heat exposure on the job.

The regulations, which were adopted June 15 and will go into effect later this summer, apply to all outdoor worksites, ranging from construction projects to street repair crews, gardeners, theme park employees and outdoor dock and airport workers. They replace emergency regulations that were enacted last summer.

Under the regulations, all employers with outdoor workers must provide a sufficient quantity of water, defined as one quart per hour per employee. They must also make sure all outdoor employees have access to shade and require any employee with symptoms of heat illness to spend at least five minutes in the shade.

Employers must also provide training for both supervisors and line workers on how to identify heat illness risk factors and mapping out emergency response procedures. A written plan with all these elements must he on file at each outdoor worksite.

Employers would also have to acclimate new workers to high temperatures. "Most of the deaths last year were among workers that had recently started on the job and were not used to dealing with high temperatures," said Dean Fryer, spokesman for the state Department of Industrial Relations, which oversees Cal-OSHA.

Employers caught violating these regulations face fines of up to $25,000 per violation.

Given the crisis atmosphere that surrounded last summer's heat-related deaths, employer groups did not oppose the regulations outright. Instead, they made suggestions on how to make the regulations a bit more flexible.

Portable Equipment

The California Air Resources Board has just raised its fees for permitting of portable equipment that produce emissions.

Portable equipment includes generators, pumps, aircraft support equipment, oil drilling equipment and hundreds of other types of devices. The Air Resources Board estimates more than 50,000 such pieces of equipment are in use throughout the state, generating 4 tons of particulate matter and 60 tons of smog-forming emissions each day.

Under revisions to a 10-year-old regulation, the board on June 14 voted to increase annual inspection fees anywhere from $40 to $116 for each piece of portable equipment. Also, each piece must include a usage meter. Finally, older pieces must be replaced over time with newer, less-polluting equipment.

Chromium Plating Limits

Hexavalent chromium, the chemical commonly used in industrial coatings and metal plating that was at the center of contamination of Pacific Gas & Electric wells in the film "Erin Brokovich," is taking center stage again, this time as the subject of sweeping state regulations.

The California Air Resources Board is proposing phasing out hexavalent chromium for all decorative chromium plating applications and severely limiting emissions of the cancer-causing chemical when used for other applications. Manufacturers would have to use a different, less toxic form of chromium, known as trivalent chromium.

In a presentation of the proposed regulations, Air Resources Board officials say, "Despite stringent regulation, chrome plating and chromic acid anodizing facilities continue to be a source of adverse exposures, especially to nearby people."

In hearings and testimony on the issue earlier this year, chrome plating operations complained that some of the proposed emission control measures--especially spraying down of parts to reduce dust and fumes--were not feasible. In response, CARB staff has proposed phasing in the regulation over five to 10 years to give manufacturers more time to comply.

A hearing on the regulations is scheduled for July 18 at the California Environmental Protection Agency offices in El Monte. For more information, log onto the Air Resources Board web site at: arb.ca.gov/toxics/chrome/ workmtgs.htm.

Spat Over Fees

The South Coast Air Quality Management District last month approved fee and permit hikes of up to 30 percent, but not without some grumbling from a local business coalition.

The California Small Business Alliance, a coalition of industrial trade organizations dedicated to fighting increased environmental regulations, sharply criticized the air district's move, saying it was excessive and geared in part towards bolstering pensions for district staffers.

Alliance executive director Bill LaMarr said in a letter to the air district board that the fee hikes do not come with a corresponding improvement in efficiency. "The most significant detriment to agency efficiency is in the permitting process," he said. "Bottlenecks and bureaucracy in this process have enormous financial implications."

Furthermore, La Marr said, the need to raise fees have more to do with preserving a retirement program and increasing staffing levels in the area of permit processes. "It isn't clear to us that the air would be any cleaner, just that accounting would look better," La Marr said.

AQMD spokesman Sam Atwood took issue with his statements on both counts. "Our lee increases have not kept up with the cost of inflation for more than 10 years now and we are not recovering our costs. We're having to make up the difference out of our reserve funds," Atwood said.

As for the staff pension situation, Atwood said LaMarr was off base. He pointed to a recent agreement that the AQMD reached with its union employees to reduce pension benefits for new hires and to reduce the agency's contributions to existing retirement plans. "We're reducing overall pension expenditures, not increasing them," he said.

Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached by phone at [phone], ext. 227, or by e-mail at [e-mail].