When was osha created and established

The mission of OSHA is to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance. To achieve this, federal and state governments work together with more than million working men and women and eight million employers. Some of the things OSHA does to carry out its mission are:. OSHA also assists the States in their efforts to assure safe and healthful working conditions, through OSHA- approved job safety and health programs operated by individual states.

States with approved plans cover most private sector employees as well as state and local government workers in the state. State plan programs respond to accidents and employee complaints and conduct unannounced inspections, just like federal OSHA.

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Civil rights, women's rights, Vietnam, and the environment all demanded the country's attention. At the same time, occupational injuries and illnesses were increasing in both number and severity. Disabling injuries increased 20 percent during the decade, and 14, workers were dying on the job each year.

In pressing for prompt passage of workplace safety and health legislation, New Jersey Senator Harrison A. Williams Jr. In the House, Representative William A. Steiger worked for passage of a bill. On December 29, , President Richard M. Nixon signed The Occupational Safety and Health Act of , also known as the Williams-Steiger Act in honor of the two men who pressed so hard for its passage.

From its earliest days, OSHA was a small agency with a big mission. Today, million private-sector workers and employers at 6. OSHA was created because of public outcry against rising injury and death rates on the job. Through the years the agency has focused its resources where they can have the greatest impact in reducing injuries, illnesses, and deaths in the workplace.

Over the past three decades, agency strategies have evolved in keeping with events and needs of the times. In response to tragedies, OSHA established a standard to prevent grain elevator explosions and published a process safety management standard to forestall chemical catastrophes caused by inadequate planning and safety systems. OSHA has also focused on emerging health issues such as bloodborne pathogens and musculoskeletal disorders.

OSHA's enforcement strategy has evolved from initially targeting a few problem industries to zeroing in on high-hazard industries and more recently, pinpointing specific sites with high injury rates. Education and outreach have played important roles in dealing with virtually every safety or health issue. OSHA's first task was to assemble a staff and, following its congressional mandate, to adopt federal standards and voluntary consensus standards in place at organizations such as the American National Standards Institute, the National Fire Protection Administration, and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists.

Congress gave OSHA 2 years to put an initial base of standards in place by adopting these widely recognized and accepted standards. Other standards were to be issued through notice and comment rulemaking. OSHA published its first consensus standards on May 29, Some of those standards, including permissible exposure limits for more than toxic substances, remain in effect today.

Others have been updated or expanded through public rulemaking, dropped as unnecessary or overly specific, or amended to clarify their intent. OSHA's first original standard limited worker exposure to asbestos, a proven carcinogen. Standards for a group of carcinogens, vinyl chloride, coke oven emissions, cotton dust, lead, benzene, dibromochloropropane, arsenic, acrylonitrile, and hearing conservation followed.

Early standards responded to health issues well known to the occupational safety and health community. During this period, OSHA employed several enforcement strategies. Initially the agency emphasized voluntary compliance with inspections dedicated to catastrophic accidents and the most dangerous and unhealthful workplaces.

Later, the agency adopted a "get tough" stance that evolved to a more targeted approach based on significant hazards. OSHA further refined its inspection targeting system in the late s to focus 95 percent of health inspections on industries with the most serious problems.

The agency also established special emphasis programs focused on foundries and grain elevators. Congress recognized when debating safety and health legislation that several states already were operating effective occupational safety and health programs.

Participating states had to adopt a program comparable to the federal one, with standards at least as effective as federal standards. Additionally, states running their own programs were required to cover state and local government employees. Today, 24 states and 2 territories now operate programs covering private-sector and state and local government employees. Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York have state plans that cover public employees only. States with their own OSHA programs conduct inspections to enforce health and safety standards and provide occupational safety and health training and education.

Popular Courses. Part Of. Agencies and Entities. Employment and Pay. Unemployment Protections. Health and Safety. Unions and Right to Work. The Occupational Safety and Health Act applies to most private sector employers and their workers, in addition to some in the public sector. OSHA serves as the enforcement arm of the act, applying fines and penalties to employers that violate its rules, standards, and guidelines.

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