OSHA

OSHA

Commentary

"What did we set up the government for?"

May 31, 2011

“I can’t see what all this talk is about. How is it wrong for the State to intervene with regard to the working conditions of people who work in the factories and mills? I don’t see what they mean. What did we set up the government for?”     (New York Senator Al Smith during debates regarding new health and safety legislation in the state, 1913)

The UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) co-publishes its eighth Research and Policy Brief, OSHA at 40: Looking Back, Looking Ahead, with the UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH). This brief reviews the accomplishments of OSHA over its 40-year history, highlighting the agency's important role in reducing workplace fatalities and protecting workers in a variety of industries from harm. In the current anti-government political climate, we make the case for robust government regulations backed by scientific evidence and effective enforcement.

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Cry Wolf Quotes

[Brown lung is] an allergy. If you are exposed to cotton dust and develop any kind of respiratory problem, it can be corrected providing you have not been exposed for a very very long period.

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Robert Small, President of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, America’s Textile Reporter Bulletin, August, 1978.
08/01/1978 | Full Details | Law(s): Occupational Safety and Health Act, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA's Cotton Dust Standard

It is sickening to see the gutless minions of the news media siding with those few crybaby Americans who obviously are looking for a handout from the very hand that fed and clothed their families.

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William Pitts owner of the 80 year old Hermitage Mills, located in Camden South Carolina.
02/03/1980 | Full Details | Law(s): Occupational Safety and Health Act, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA's Cotton Dust Standard

[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.

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F. Sadler Love, Secretary-Treasurer of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, The Washington Post.
04/28/1977 | Full Details | Law(s): Occupational Safety and Health Act, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA's Cotton Dust Standard

[The ergonomics standard is a] overbroad, overdrawn, bureaucratic mess.

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Sen. Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.), From Wall St. Journal.
03/07/2001 | Full Details | Law(s): Ergonomics Standard (2000), Occupational Safety and Health Act, Occupational Safety and Health Administration
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