Impact of the OSHA Act.
Part of the report just before the OSHA act was enacted revealed that there was up to 14,000 job-related deaths due to workplace accidents, approximately 2.5 million people were disabled due to workplace injuries, lost work-days from workplace-related disabilities were ten times more than those caused by strikes, and new cases of occupation-related diseases were approximately 300, 000 (Cohen and Peterson 2). Since its inception, the OSHA Act has played a significant role in the US. The Act helped both employers and employees find effective means of addressing critical workplace issues associated with both safety and health which include illnesses, deaths, and injuries. Before the Act was enacted, there were many reported cases of deaths, illnesses, and injuries that used to occur in the workplace. However, after the Act was enacted, there was a noticeable impact on the reported cases. For example, statistics shows that fatalities taking place at the workplace was reduced by 60% upon enacted of the Act. On the other hand, illness and occupational injury reduced by 40%. From the year 2003 to 2004, statistics show that there was a 4% reduction in the number of workplace illness and injuries while the lost man-hours reduced by 5.8%. The Act has also led to the elimination of a brown lung disease that was prevalent in the textile industry. Besides reduction in the incidences of injury, death, and illness, it has been also observed that the Act brought major changes in the US employment. The reduction of workplace incidences results has other associated benefits. For example, when there is a good sense of workers’ health and safety, the businesses also has a lot to gain in terms of reduced compensation in form of insurance costs, reduced absenteeism, educed defective products, and reduced payout for the victims who return to continue working. Furthermore, some OSHA Act which led to the decreased incidents also brought up indirect benefits. These include reduced cost of training new workers replacing the injured, ill or the death; increased productivity, and decreased cost for paying employees working overtime.
Despite great strides in cutting workplace incidences, there has been reports of catastrophic accidents even with the existence of the OSHA Act including the spilling of many barrels of oil in the Alaskan coastline, explosions of fireworks, Bhopal India toxic chemical release, and collapse of L’Ambianze Plaza in Connecticut among others (OSHA 22).
Works Cited
Peterson, Robert D., and Joel M. Cohen. The Complete Guide to OSHA Compliance. Boca Raton, FL.: Lewis, 1996. Print.
Occupational Safety, & Heal Administration (OSHA). Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. 2015. Web. 25 July 2015. https://www.osha.gov/dte/grant_materials/fy07/sh-16625-07/oshahandout.pdf
Occupational Safety, & Heal Administration (OSHA). Reflections on OSHA’s History. 2009. Web. 25 July 2015. < https://www.osha.gov/history/OSHA_HISTORY_3360s.pdf>
