Standards Board Finally Gets Seats Filled

Gov. Jerry Brown has reappointed four current members of the Cal/OSH Standards Board and named two new members to Cal/OSHA’s rulemaking body. The appointments are being said to provide both stability and new faces to the board.

The newly appointed members are Robert Blink, 62, of San Francisco, and John Sacco, 60, of Rocklin. Both are longtime professionals in the occupational safety and health and occupational medicine fields.

Reappointed are chair David Thomas, 57 and David Harrison, 43, both labor representatives, management representative Barbara Smisko, 63,  and occupational safety representative Laura Stock, 61.

Blink is an occupational medicine physician at Vista Oaks Occupational Medicine and has been vice president and medical director at Worksite Partners Medical Group since 1988. He started his career as an emergency physician in 1979. He eared his M.D. from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and a master’s degree in public health from U.C. Berkeley.

Sacco has been principal industrial hygienist and safety engineer at Earthshine Consulting since 1998. He previously served as risk manager for the Association of California Water Agencies Joint Powers Insurance Authority, senior industrial hygienist at Continental Technical Services and an IH and safety professional at Fireman’s Fund. He earned a master’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas.

The two men will fill the occupational health seat vacated by Hank McDermott and management seat vacated by Bill Jackson. 

–30–