The safety of every worker “to the maximum extent feasible” was the goal of Congress when it passed the Occupational Health and Safety Act in 1970. A new department, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), was formed within the Department of Labor to pass safety regulations and to inspect workplaces. For twenty-five years OSHA has been hard at work. The agency has over 4000 detailed regulations, dictating everything from the height of railings (42 inches) to how much a plank can stick out from a temporary scaffold (12 inches). There are about 2000 safety inspectors in the field, not many compared with 6 million workplaces, but enough to do some good if they focus on firms with bad safety records. Several hundred billion dollars have been spent by industry to comply with OSHA’s rules. Intuitively, all this expense must have done some good.
It hasn’t. Safety in the American workplace is about the same as it was in 1970.
Philip K. Howard – The Death of Common Sense
Statisticians can add the safety features such as ABS and airbags which come standard in today’s vehicles to all of OSHA’s regulations. In the trash and recycling industry, we still have the same percentage of accidents and injuries from accidents as we did back in the “Dino-Days” as the drivers call them. Though we do our best to do make sure we’re as safe as possible.
You can’t legislate out human error.
I get twisted up about this subject, as my work is intertwined with OSHA regs. As much of a pain in the rear as they are, I’m very certain that if they were to disappear, workplace fatalities, and workers’ compensation costs, especially in construction, would rise significantly.
I assure you that I’m not the least bit wobbly, but there are a lot of contractors who would be indifferent to basic workplace safety if there wasn’t the threat of OSHA and lawsuits.
In the ideal world, the free market would dictate the survival of the fittest- in addition to quality workmanship, low-bids, and good pay to get the most talented workers, but we’re far from being able to do that.
Completing my full-cynicism about workplace safety, I find that a lot of well-trained workers who are fully aware of the hazards, of, say silica exposure, WILLFULLY ignore the requirements of their jobs per safety. Then, when they show up at the medical clinic, the employer is on the hook for the costs of treatment, “scarring”, and their pay.
If you didn’t guess, it’s part of my job to reduce these costs.