The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 or better known as OSHA often brings out some very opinionated discussions. Passed and signed into Law December 29, 1970 by President Richard Nixon, that making it 40 plus years old, remains one of the most controversial and miss understood Laws on the books.
A day doesn’t go by without someone, employee, employer being affected by the thousands upon thousands of regulations adopted and enforced by the Act. But has it worked? Do we really need OSHA?
Politics, What Side Are You On?
In today’s somewhat uncertain political atmosphere, that is the fluctuation of what side is best for the United States of America and its citizens. We constantly hear the cry of “No more” or “Too much” Government intervention. The right side, often referred to as the “conservative” side always supports less government where is the left side, often referred to as the “liberal” side supports more or a possibly stronger government involvement in many of our day to day activities including where and how we work.
So what is the best approach? Well for this article let’s just deal with government’s involvement in the workplace and their involvement through the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). OSHA’s responsibility is to ensure that employers provide employees with an environment (workplace) free from recognized hazards.
OSHA has adopted and enforces rules and regulation governing everything from air quality, noise levels, machine guarding, personal protective equipment to housekeeping. If it affects or can affect your well being within the workplace it will be governed by OSHA. Bottom line if you are an employer you are affected by OSHA and are mandated to comply with all its applicable rules and regulations.
No Need To Tell Me To Be Safe.
Nobody wants to be hurt or killed on the job. Why need an Agency to tell us how to perform our duties? As a private safety and health consultant and prior OSHA Compliance Officer and OSHA Consultant I hear this all the time.
Why would an employer or an employee not want to do the job or task safely? Well there are a number of reasons why so many jobs or specific task are performed in an unsafe manner. To cover all of those reasons I would need to right a book and not an article. Let’s just mention a few and see if then you can come to a decision as to whether the need for an agency such as OSHA exists.
I’ve Been Doing It This Way For Years and Never Got Hurt.
Often when I perform a safety and health survey and identify risk factors I will hear this excuse. My attempt to explain the reasoning behind the need for the change in equipment or procedures first begins by explaining or applying the OSHA regulation or regulations which mandates the change. This doesn’t always sell the idea, again based on the fact that nobody has ever been hurt doing the job or task in the noted manner.
So why change?
If we would experience an injury the very first time we performed an unsafe act or used a hazardous piece of equipment we then would immediately stop doing it that way and take action. That would make safety simple but it just doesn’t work that way. That is what makes selling safety so hard. That is why the OSHA regulations deal with statistics, risk factors, possibility of injury based on recordable injuries and illnesses and the severity of the injury in the event an accident does happen.
For example, an unguarded piece of equipment, an exposed ingoing nip point on a belt and pulley or chain and sprocket is a “risk factor”, it is a hazard. You may use that unsafe, unprotected equipment or walk by that hazardous area for years and nothing will happen, but it can. Why allow that risk to be present when it can easily be protected. It’s true; many operators because of their talent and knowledge of the equipment are aware of the risk factors and perform their duties without any injuries. It is when for some unknown reason something happens, an accident.
You will find a number of definitions for the term accident. The one I like reads as follows: some sudden and unexpected event taking place without expectation, upon the instant, rather than something that continues progresses or develops (offered by the Free Dictionary by Farlex). This definition sort of covers it all. You didn’t expect it to happen, it happens suddenly even though it never happen before. So the excuse that nothing has happen in the past isn’t accepted any more. So why not just eliminate or reduce those risk factors? Stop the potential for the accident.
What About Unrecognized Risk Factors or Hazards.
The above example can be seen and easily recognized. But what about the unknown hazards that may exist in the workplace. These usually are associated with what you breathe or possibly can absorb into your system by contact. For example the exposure to asbestos, lead or a number of toxic substances many which can be carcinogenic.
Many of these substances and their exposure have a very long latency period associated with illness. The first time you are exposed nothing happens, no ill effects. You may believe it is safe, no problem. Without proper research and study and then the establishing of exposure levels which are then implemented into regulations we would not know the extent of exposure one can handle.
OSHA has well over 300 chemicals known to be used in the workplace which they have established PELs (Permissible Exposure Limits), CELs (Ceiling Limits) and STELs (Short Term Exposure Limits). Without OSHA or their supporting Agencies workers and employers may not be aware of the unseen hazards associated with these regulated chemicals.
Tell Us What To Do and We Will Do It.
So, we somewhat see that there is a need to identify and inform both employers and employees of hazardous conditions and hazardous substances. But just inform us and we will take it from there. Why punish us with citations and high monetary penalties? I would like to accept this request and believe that it would work, that is if employers and employees were just made aware of the rules and regulations associated with safety and health they would voluntarily comply; but it just isn’t so.
There are some very aggressive companies and organizations out their including some progressive Labor Unions that make an all out effort in ensuring that their employees and members work and conduct their business in a safe and healthy manner. But there are others who without the strong arm of OSHA and many other regulatory agencies do not and won’t unless they get that “knock on the door”. This isn’t an opinion, its fact. According to OSHA the “Top Ten” most cited safety violations resulting from an OSHA inspection are:
- Scaffolding, general requirements, construction ( 29 CFR 1926.451) [ related topic page ]
- Fall protection, construction ( 29 CFR 1926.501) [ related topics page ]
- Hazard communication standard, general industry ( 29 CFR 1910.1200) [ related topic page ]
- Control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout), general industry ( 29 CFR 1910.147) [ related topic page ]
- Respiratory protection, general industry ( 29 CFR 1910.134) [ related topic page ]
- Electrical, wiring methods, components and equipment, general industry ( 29 CFR 1910.305) [ related topic page ]
- Powered industrial trucks, general industry ( 29 CFR 1910.178) [ related topic page ]
- Ladders, construction ( 29 CFR 1926.1053) [ related topic page ]
- Machines, general requirements, general industry ( 29 CFR 1910.212) [ related topics page ]
- Electrical systems design, general requirements, general industry ( 29 CFR 1910.303)
Why do these remain to be ignored? Why not just voluntarily comply with these well known, well established, somewhat “common sense” rules of safety and health. Why? I believe it is based on the fact that safety and health are back shelf concerns in business. Production is number one and it is obvious why.
If we do not produce a product or provide a service we are no longer in business. It, in my opinion is also somewhat obvious that during that production or provided service process, profit is the driving component. Without a profit you won’t last long. Therefore the cost of business must include cost associated with injuries and illnesses. Too many companies ignore the cost and the hidden cost of injuries and illnesses and often just look at it as the “cost of doing business”.
Back To The Beginning.
That brings us back to the beginning. For companies that have not experienced, have not had any lost time injuries or illnesses or have had a few, OSHA is looked at as just a nuisance. Another Government Agency in the way of doing business. For those companies, many who have recently made the news, OSHA is the agency who caught them.
You've possibly read or heard the stories, including the huge penalties issued by OSHA for companies who ignored the safety or health rules and regulations. That deliberate action resulted in injury and death and subsequent OSHA inspections, citations and penalties. Why didn’t they just comply? Why? We have done this in the past many times and nothing ever happen; sound familiar? If you allow known “risk factors” to exist believe me something is going to happen. Do you need the fear of OSHA? Will employers and employees voluntarily do things the right way, the safe way? Is OSHA needed?
You be the judge.
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