Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

The agency that promulgates and enforces workplace safety and health standards.

Commentary

safety first

Report: Bush’s Voluntary Program Didn’t Help Job Safety and Health

June 19, 2009

Cry Wolf Quotes

The imposition of large cost burdens on the private sector [rests] ultimately on the U.S. economy. [Additionally there are] many less visible secondary effects that cause substantial incremental costs…to society generally. [These include] losses in productivity of labor, equipment, and capital, delays in construction of new plants and equipment, misallocation of resources and lost opportunities.

-
From the “The Cost of Government Regulation": a study for the Business Roundtable by Arthur Anderson & Co.

One month [after the law took effect] a special edition of the Federal Register was published containing close to 250 pages of safety and health standards. Businessmen were given three months to familiarize themselves with these standards before the majority of them were to be effective.

-
Richard B. Berman, Chamber of Commerce, Testimony, the Select Subcommittee on Labor of the House Committee on Education and Labor.

[Only one percent of cotton workers] have a reaction to cotton dust. The problem is grossly exaggerated. There has not been a known death from byssinosis. There are no autopsy findings that prove the existence of byssinosis in an individual. There are subjective symptoms which the patients express that sometimes result from bronchitis, emphysema or excessive smoking.

-
F. Sadler Love, Secretary-Treasurer of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, The Washington Post.

Repealing the ergonomics regulation will save small businesses billions of dollars that means fewer layoffs, less pay-cuts and economic growth.

-
Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX), The New York Times, “House Joins Senate in Repealing Rules on Workplace Injuries”.

Backgrounders & Briefs

2011 Death on the Job

The AFL-CIO's annual report about death, illness, and injury at work.

Gauging Control Technology and Regulatory Impacts in Occupational Safety and Health

Information on multiple OSHA regulations and their costs. In almost every case, the regulations were far cheaper than the agency estimated.