Word: osha
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...OSHA is floundering in trivia," says James D. ("Mike") McKevitt, former Colorado Congressman and current Washington lawyer for the 440,000-member National Federation of Independent Business. A Nader study reports that through the first four years of OSHA's activity, more than 98% of its citations involved nonserious cases and fines averaging a mere $19. Meanwhile, after five years, OSHA has produced a grand total of three comprehensive health standards for industry: one governing the amount of asbestos that can be present in factory environments, another for carcinogens, a third for vinyl chloride. It has yet to specify...
...OSHA so inefficient? One reason is lack of money. While OSHA'S budget has ballooned from $36 million in fiscal '72 to about $117 million now, the agency's scientific research effort has languished because of underfunding. Average salaries in OSHA'S research unit are about $13,000, equal to the pay of a good Washington secretary and hardly enough to lure top talent...
There are indications that the agency has been hobbled by politics. The White House tried to use OSHA to raise funds from employers during Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign. Recently, OSHA postponed issuing several new health codes until next year. Reason: the Administration insisted that it file statements on the potential inflationary impact of its proposed codes. Such statements can run hundreds of pages and cost up to $100,000 each. OSHA'S supporters see the requirement for the statements as an Administration ploy to postpone until after the election regulations that would be costly...
Director Corn, a respected professor of occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh, who was appointed to head OSHA late last year, is determined to make the agency more effective. Corn is moving to hire 250 new inspectors and expand the agency's training program to focus more on worker health. Of 1,200 OSHA inspectors, only 135 are industrial hygienists. "OSHA has taken a hell of a rapping for petty enforcement," says Corn. "It was deserved. We've concentrated far too much on safety and not enough on health...
...Corn is under no illusion that his task will be easy. Already bills are piling up in Congress that would weaken the original OSHA act. One would essentially exempt from regulation businesses employing 25 or fewer workers. OSHA has tangled with other federal agencies over who has jurisdiction in safety matters involving aircraft, railroads and interstate trucking. And recently in Texas, a federal court ruled that OSHA inspectors cannot enter a workplace without a search warrant...