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

[The strong Democratic bill will] bring about conditions in the business community which will be chaotic…and could bring about a breakdown between government and those in labor and management with which it deals.

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Representative Robert L.F. Sikes (D-FL), The Chicago Tribune, “Nixon’s Job Safety Bill Wins in House”.

It could be read to require the Secretary to ban all occupations in which there remains some risk of injury, impaired health, or life expectancy…the present criteria could, if literally applied, close every business in this nation.

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Senator Peter Dominick (R-CO) frets about the recently passed OSH Act’s potential consequences.

Research shows that no one level of dust is more hazardous than another -- it's a combination of factors… We think the record shows elevators of various size are using a variety of options to reduce explosions.

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The National Grain and Feed Association spokesman Randy Gordon, The Miami Herald.

[M]uch of the scientific data obtained by researchers to date is inconclusive….misplaced reliance on mere suspicions rather than proven data, or precipitous and emotional reaction to such incomplete information…could lead to major economic consequences.

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Jerome Heckman, general counsel of the Society of the Plastics Industry.