Occupational Safety and Health Act

Occupational Safety and Health Act

The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act was enacted in 1970 to "assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women." The OSH Act created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) at the federal level and provided that states could run their own safety and health programs as long as those programs were at least as effective as the federal program.  It also created the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, to review the agency’s regulations, and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to research necessary areas of focus.

Cry Wolf Quotes

[N]one [of our members] could operate if the NIOSH [vinyl chloride] Work Standard were imposed upon the industry.

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The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI).

The [vinyl chloride standard would be the] tip of an enormous regulatory iceberg….If government allows workers to be exposed to the gas, some of them may die. If it eliminates all exposure a valuable industry may disappear.

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Paul H. Weaver, Fortune Magazine.

[OSHA has] substantially overstated the risks of fires, explosions and other hazards…the costs of the rule greatly exceed the benefits.

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The Office of Management and Budget. The Miami Herald.

This fight is as old civilization: the unending war of a free people with inalienable rights granted by God, against those tyrannical power-hungry politicians intent on the establishment of a totalitarian government.

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William Pitts owner of the 80 year old Hermitage Mills, located in Camden South Carolina.