OSHAct

The OSHAct of 1970 is such a law and is also called the WiUiams-Steiger Act It was signed by President Richard Nixon on December 29,1970 and became effective April 29,1971. (The OSHAct was not amended until November 5,1990 by Public Law 101-552.) The OSHAct assigned the responsibility of implementing and enforcing the law to a newly created agency, the OSHA, located in the Department of Labor (DOL). 

Most such federal laws (acts) contain the following elements  

Statement of the national policy related to the law Objectives/goals/outcomes expected of the law Authorization of the agency responsible for implementation Requirements and structure of the regulations to be developed Time frames for regulation, implementation, or deadlines Enforcement guidelines to be followed Fines or assessments available to the enforcing agency Specific actions required by the law 

Before the OSHAct, there were some state laws, a few pieces of federal regulations, and a small number of voluntary programs by employers. Most of the state programs were limited in scope and the federal laws only partially covered workers. 

Another important reason for the OSHAct was the increasing number of injuries and illnesses within the workplace. Thus, the OSHAct was passed with the express purpose of assuring that every working man and woman in the nation would be provided safe and healthful work conditions while preserving this national human resource, the American worker. The OSHAct is divided into sections each with a specific purpose. The full text of the OSHAct, all 31 pages, can be obtained from your local OSHA office or on the OSHA Web site. As a quick reference to the OSHAct, the following paragraphs summarize what each section includes. 

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In 1970 the US Congress enacted a health and safety law that continues to have a significant impact on the practices of industrial hygiene in the chemical industry the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHAct). To appreciate the significance of the OSHAct, it is helpful to review regulations and practices2 before 1970. 

The OSHAct makes employers responsible for providing safe and healthy working conditions for their employees. OSHA is authorized, however, to conduct inspections, and when violations of the safety and health standards are found, they can issue citations and financial penalties. Highlights of OSHA enforcement rights are illustrated in Table 3-2. 

The implications, interpretations, and applications of the OSHAct will continue to develop as standards are promulgated. Especially within the chemical industry, these standards will continue to create an environment for improving process designs and process conditions relevant to the safety and health of workers and the surrounding communities. 

Government regulation will continue to be a significant part of the practice of chemical process safety. Since the OSHAct was signed into law, substantial new legislation controlling the workplace and community environment has been enacted. Table 3-3 provides a summary of... 

In the United States the basis of the relative legislation covering chemicals in the workplace is the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct) which is enacted via the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). The objectives of this body are as listed below [B-17]. 

OSHA Act of 1970—Public Law 91-594 http //www.osha-slc.gov/oshAct/OSHACT.html l... 

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct) is administered and enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Both OSH A and OSHAct were created in December 1970, the same month the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) was created. Unlike the US EPA, OSHA is essentially an enforcement organization and most of its employees are inspectors who perform thousands of workplace inspections per year it is a division of the Department of Labor. The OSHAct assures, as far as possible, that all working men or women have risk-free working environments and imposes on employers the obligation to provide employees with workplaces that are free from recognized health and safety hazards and to maintain compliance with specific OSHA standards. 

CE321 A009B/0/Tyoturvallisuuslaki.pdf Occupational Health Care Act (Tirnisposition of the EU Framwork Directive 89/391/EEC) http //www.fi.osha.eu.int/legislation/oshact,pdf ... 

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHAct) remains the primary federal vehicle for ensuring workplace safety and health in the United States. This law requires that employers provide a place of employment free from recognized hazards to employee safety or health. The critical word is recognized because today s workplaces have many new materials and processes for which hazard knowledge is absent. This places a large responsibility on the employer to keep abreast of new knowledge and information about workplace hazards for their operations. The OSHAct established three agencies to deal with workplace safety and health. These were the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. 

The purpose of the OSHA Proposed Safety and Health Program Rule (see website http //www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/safetyhetilth/nshp.html) is to reduce the number of job-related fatalities, illnesses, and injuries by requiring employers to establish a workplace safety and health program to ensure compliance with OSHA sttmdards and the General Duty Clause of the OSHAct. All employers covered... 

The OSHAct requirements specify that any illness or injury to an employee that causes time lost from the job, treatment beyond first aid, transfer to another job, loss of consciousness, or an occupational iUness must be recorded on a daily log of injuries and illnesses, the OSHA 300 form (previously the 200 form). This log identifies the injured person, the date and time of the injury, the department or plant location where the injury occurred, and a brief description of the occurrence of the injury, highlighting salient facts such as the chemical, physical agent, or machinery involved and the nature of the injury. An injury should be recorded on the day that it occurs, but this is not always possible with MSDs and other cumulative trauma injuries. The number of days that the person is absent from the job is also recorded upon the employee s return to work. In addition to the daily log, a more detailed form is filled out for each injury that occurs. This form provides a more detailed description of the nature of the injury, the extent of damage to the employee, the factors that could... 

Because injuries are rare events, they do not always reflect the sum total of daily performance of company employees and managers. Thus, while they are an accurate measure of overall company safety performance, they are an insensitive measure at the individual and departmental levels. Some experts feel that more basic information has to be collected to provide the basis for directing health and safety efforts. One proposed measure is to use first-aid reports from industrial clinics. These provide information on more frequent events than the injuries required to be reported by the OSHAct. It is thought that these occurrences can provide insights into patterns of hazards and/or behaviors that may lead to the more serious injuries and that their greater number provides a larger statistical base for determining accident potential. 

OSHA does place responsibility for safety on the employer in the Occupational Safety and Health act of 1970 (OSHAct) through the general duty... 

In the United States, the principal basis for the control of chemicals in an occupational context is the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct), which became law in 1970. This Act established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) within the Department of Labor. OSHA has established since that time a wide range of Standards covering most aspects of occupational health, the majority of which are published in Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). 

Another important piece of US legislation is the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which has been in force since 1977. This Act (which is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA) provides the regulatory vehicle to control exposure to, and use of, industrial chemicals not covered by previous environmental laws covering food, drugs and pesticide chemicals. It thus has a wider field of application than the OSHAct, which is limited to occupational situations. TSCA has four major purposes ... 

OSHA was created in 1970 on passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct), Public Law 91-596. The OSHAct became effective on April 28, 1971, and authorized the federal government to establish and enforce standards for occupational safety and health. The intention of the OSHAct was to ensure that all employees in the United States had safe working conditions. The OSHAct also required the head of each federal agency (except the US Post Office) to establish an occupational safety and health program that is consistent with the standards promulgated under the act. 

The lead standard requires employers to ensure that no employee is exposed above the PEL. In 1971, OSHA set the initial PEL for lead at 200 pg/m as an 8-hour TWA. The PEL was based on American National Standards Institute consensus standard z37.11-1969. The consensus standard did not provide any justification for its level of 200 pg/m (43 Fed. Reg. 52952 [1978]). OSHA also used the ACGIH threshold limit value (TLV ) as a national consensus standard to establish the initial PEL (Public Law 91-596). The 1968 TLV for lead was also 200 pg/m (43 Fed. Reg. 52952 [1978]). OSHA was required in the OSHAct to set standards by using national consensus standards within 2 years of the OSHAct s becoming effective (Public Law 91-596). 

NIOSH was created in 1970 by the OSHAct and established in the Department of Health Education and Welfare, which became the Department of Health and Human Services, to carry out the duties of the OSHAct assigned to the secretary of health and httman services. Those duties include research, experiments, and demonstrations related to occupational safety and health (Ptrblic Law 91-596). NIOSH first published its Criteria for a Recommended Standard Occupational Exposure to Inorganic Lead in 1973. After an OSHA proposal to revise the occupational health standard for inorganic lead in 1976, NIOSH revised its criteria document in 1978 and lowered its recommended 10-hotrr TWA for airborne lead from 150 to 100 pg/m and its recommended maximum BLL from 80 to 60 pg/dL (NIOSH 1978). 

For the complete text of Section 4, see http //www.osha.gov/pls/ oshaweb/owadisp.show document p table=OSHACT p id=3358. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 available at http //www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owasrch.search form p doc type= OSHACT (accessed November 15, 2008). 

As a result, OSHA developed non-mandatory guidelines for employers, especially those in meatpacking and poultry businesses. It also established that it could cite an employer for ergonomics injuries and illnesses under the General Duty Clause of the OSHAct of 1970. 

In practice, occupational safety and health includes moral and economic issues. There is also a legal compulsion for companies to promote occupational safety and health. The United States government and governments worldwide require protection of employees from hazards that may result in injury, illness, or death. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, commonly known as the OSHAct, every employer in the United States is required to provide a safe and healthful workplace. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct) of 1970 was passed by Congress. . to assure so far as possible every working... 

When the OSHAct was first passed, much criticism stemmed from the fact that the legislation was a hodgepodge of rules of thumb and guidelines never intended to be made into laws. Since the passage of the Act, many of the trivial regulations have been changed or eliminated in an attempt to make it a more reasonable standard for workplace performance. 

The OSHAct also created the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC). NIOSH operates within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to develop occupational safety and health standards for recommendation to the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of HHS, and to fulfill the research and training functions of the Secretary of HHS. It is headquartered in Washington, DC, but carries out many of its functions at its facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Morgantown, West Virginia. It also works through contracts with more than 15 Education and Research Centers and over 40 Training... 

States marked with an asterisk ( ) have a state safety and health plan under section 18(b) of the OSHAct. Those states agencies may be contacted directly for specific information regarding regulations in their jurisdictions. 

Prevention of occupationally related accidents/incidents is the law. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHAct) requires employers to provide a workplace free from hazards that could cause serious harm or death. Beyond that, it makes good business sense to prevent accident/incidents. More and more companies have come to realize that the OSHAct is a helpmate, not a hindrance, to their acddent/incident prevention initiative. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSH A) sets the foundation and assumes the role of law enforcer, allowing the employer to not be viewed as the bad guy to his or her employees. Employers can deflect responsibility to OSH A. 

As stated previously, the original OSHA standards and regulations have come from three main sources consensus standards, proprietary standards, and federal laws that existed when the OSHAct became law. Consensus standards are industry-wide standards developed by organizations. They are discussed and substantially agreed upon through industry consensus. OSHA has incorporated into its standards the standards of two primary groups the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Proprietary standards are prepared by professional experts from specific industries, professional societies, and associations. The proprietary standards are determined by a straight membership vote, not by consensus. 

To ensure, as much as possible, a healthy and safe workplace and conditions for workers in the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was created by the OSHAct to... 

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