OSHA behind on regulation, accountability

Patrice Woeppel, Haydenville, Mass.

Friday, Dec. 12, 2008 | 2:04 a.m.

Thomas M. Stohler, acting assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, claims in his Sunday letter to the editor that OSHA has been effective in making improvements in worker safety and health. As proof, he cites the decline in the workplace fatality rate.

Indeed, it would appear from Bureau of Labor Statistics fatality figures that fatalities have declined. However, it is conservatively estimated that 10 times that number go unrecorded by the bureau. Those are the fatalities caused by occupational illnesses, particularly toxic chemical exposures.

What has OSHA really accomplished in the past eight years? Reliance on voluntary compliance, and the withdrawal of every regulation attempted since 2001.

At the same time, about 650,000 chemicals are in use in industry today. We have regulated fewer than 500 of them, and most of those regulations are woefully out of date. By comparison, the European Union regulates 30,000 chemicals, and many that we allow here have long been banned by the EU.

This is a disaster of monumental proportions: It is conservatively estimated that 60,000 lives are lost in our country each year to illnesses resulting from workplace toxic chemical exposures. Worker safety is a major public health crisis, costly in lives and billions of dollars each year.

The time is long overdue to make the employer responsible and accountable to create and maintain a safe and healthy workplace.