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Tuesday, January 30, 2007

OSHA's Forecast for 2007

A fairly long article in yesterdays issue of Occupational Hazards Magazine looks at what can be expected from OSHA in 2007 under their new administrator Edwin Foulke Jr. Opinions seem to vary depending on the viewpoint of those expressing them, in particular when talking to OSHA critics. The article quotes Joel Shufro, for example:

"Labor advocates such as Joel Shufro, executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), agree that the strong focus on compliance assistance has been on the agenda ever since the Bush administration has come on board. But Shufro claims such strategies have made the agency "become increasingly irrelevant to workers' everyday lives."

After reporting the opinions of those critical of OSHA, the article then says:

"Other critics are more sympathetic to OSHA and to Foulke, but they also agree that the agency needs to do more when it comes to standard-setting."

"Michael Thompson, president-elect for the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), agrees that the process of updating standards has come to a "stalemate" for the last couple of years."

"'State-of-the-art scientific and data research that is ongoing indicate that certain standards need to be urgently updated,' says Thompson."

Whatever your position on OSHA's past record and current direction, this article provides interesting reading as it speculates on what directions OSHA should take in 2007.

Labels: OSHA