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What is the Purpose
of OSHA?
Protection for American Workers
OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is a US government
agency which exists to protect American
workers from being harmed and killed by preventable dangers they are exposed to
in the workplace. Millions of workers are healthier and thousands of deaths have
been avoided by the diligent efforts of OSHA. Yet, a major health hazard to
workers, secondhand smoke, continues to kill 10,000-20,000 workers per
year.
In 1991, NIOSH, the research and policy forming
part of OSHA, produced guidelines to eliminate secondhand smoke from the
workplace, which could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, had they been
implemented. Sadly, these guidelines (which are posted on OSHA's own website)
are completely ignored by the majority of businesses and employers, and are not
enforced by OSHA.
OSHA is not Preventing Deaths
from Secondhand Smoke in the Workplace
In OSHA's defense, the US government has not allocated funding needed to
enforce these guidelines. Nevertheless, the fact remains that OSHA cannot and is
not doing its job, and the number of preventable deaths from secondhand smoke
among workers is mounting every year. There are
additionally millions more workers with serious illness due to secondhand smoke.
The vast majority of these deaths and disabilities could have been prevented if OSHA had started enforcing its own guidelines when they were published
17 years
ago.
As it turns out, enforcing
smoke-free workplaces is not difficult at all. The
experience of over 2200 cities and municipalities who
have passed smoke-free legislation, has been very
favorable. Just proclaiming that workplaces are to be
smoke-free brings about the social change needed, and
the laws are virtually self-enforcing. All OSHA would
have to do would be to announce that all workplaces are
to be smoke-free. That simple act could save thousands
of lives every year. |
