Word: osha
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When Congress created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration four years ago, it acted out of justifiable concern about the shockingly high rate of U.S. job-caused injuries and illnesses (some 2.4 million disabling industrial injuries were reported in 1972 alone; many others doubtless went unreported). OSHA was empowered to set national standards to replace a welter of conflicting health and safety guidelines, send inspectors to factories, stores and offices to check on compliance, levy stiff fines on violators and even order unsafe businesses to close down. In operation, however, OSHA has pleased almost no one. Labor leaders complain, correctly...
Last week the businessmen pressed their complaints at two sets of hearings. One was called by OSHA itself to hear comments on a proposed regulation that factory air must be cleansed of all "detectable" amounts of vinyl chloride, a gas that has been linked to liver cancer (TIME, May 13). Plastics executives testified that technologically such perfect purification is impossible. At the other hearings, held by the House Select Subcommittee on Labor, representatives of the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce voiced more general gripes. Speaking for the N.A.M., for instance, Michael Stinton, safety manager...
Some of the business complaints seem clearly exaggerated. Big companies generally have little trouble complying with OSHA rules. The loudest protests come from medium-sized businesses-which have the highest accident rates. Many owners of these firms complain that the cost of obeying OSHA rules could drive them into bankruptcy. But when Democratic Representative Joseph Gaydos of Pennsylvania pressed Richard Berman, director of labor law for the Chamber of Commerce, to name a firm that had been put out of business by OSHA rules, Berman admitted he could not cite even...
...some OSHA rules seem contradictory. For instance, at construction sites OSHA requires back-up alarms on vehicles-and also requires some employees to wear earplugs (as a protection against noise) that might make it difficult for them to hear the alarms. The critics' most telling complaint is that visiting OSHA inspectors by law cannot advise businessmen how to clear up unsafe conditions; they can only mete out fines. George Peters, president of Aurora Metal Co., a foundry in Montgomery, Ill., fumes: "If you call OSHA in for advice, they will issue you a citation...
Silent Violence. It was not until a 1970 law created the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-and gave the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) the authority to enforce compliance with asbestos standards-that things began to happen. In 1971 a NIOSH team visited Tyler, confirmed the danger of the dust levels, and emphasized the extraordinary haz ard. The team pointed out many examples of poor hygiene practices: the company lunchroom was close to the production area and workers were using compressed-air hoses to blow dust off each other (and thus spreading...