Under Bush, OSHA Mired in Inaction

OSHA is a gov't agency that I would gladly jettison.

Dentists never had these problems until that bad ol' Bush, eh ?

 

Osha mired in inaction? That is a good thing.

White House officials have dismissed such tallies, emphasizing in recent regulatory overviews that their "objective is quality, not quantity," and that heavy restrictions on corporations harm economic performance. During Bush's presidency, they said in a September report, average annual regulatory costs were kept 24 percent lower than during the previous two decades. OSHA says it has issued many rules of lesser consequence that nonetheless clarified industry responsibilities.

 

Hopefully, the Obama adminstration will rebuild OSHA to do the work it was established to do.

 

Oh you know he will. Osha is the manufacturing unions best friend. If it's bad for capitalism, the left is all over it.

So, any estimate on how many dentists Bush has killed ?

 

If we're lucky, this is a trend that will soon affect NEA, EPA, the House & Senate, etc, etc, etc, ad infinitum!!!!

 

There are some good links at http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/

 

Along with the worthless, economy killing EPA.

 

If anyone has been hurt or had the privilege of looking into the eyes of a family to tell them that their dad was killed on the job because a lack of safety especially something that could have knowingly been prevented would have a much different opinion of OSHA.

I am old enough to remember when many men in my trade had lost their lives, others lost their legs, arms, and fingers. When they got hurt they were fired. A number of them were left paying the hospital bill and their families were left without an income, sometimes for the rest of their lives because companies realized that it was cheaper to fire an employee or let the employee get hurt than it was to make the workplace and equipment safe.

If we would get rid of OSHA and the EPA then would could celebrate smog and people dying due to poor air quality such as what happened to the orange trees in Los Angeles about 1960. We could have gas guzzling cars to pollute the air and people could breathe smog as they did in Chicago years ago.

If we did not have the EPA we could also plan on breathing DDT and developing allergies due to all of the chemicals in the air. We could also drink benzene in the water due to tire manufacturing and eat mercury due ot the paper industry. It would cut down on al the medical bils for old people because they would die sooner.

 

Actually, that's not true. OSHA may have been a good idea at one time, now they are just another corrupt obstructionist bloated liberal gov't agency.

And banning DDT may be responsible for 100 million African deaths from malaria. Go ahead, pat yerself on the back.

 

Have you ever worked in a manufacturing plant?

 

Yup. Several. Piece-work furniture makers, and then 7 years at BOSE Corp. Once saw OSHA close our plant down for three days because they didn't like the way the floor was painted.

 

And # on the dead dentists ?

 

How long have you been involved with OSHA to know their regulations?

 

Bose was stupid for not knowing the regulations. Anyone can look up the regulations online and in the OSHA publications. Most companies have safety people who should know better.

 

I have had all kinds of allergies from where I once lived. Once we moved to that area it was a well known saying that if you did not come with allergies you were certain to leave with some. It was not unusual to get sprayed with an airplane with chemicals for agriculture and for dusts to to combat bugs to enter your home.

 

Sorry, GB, you are not going to change my mind. And the plant they shut down was Union Products, not BOSE.

Still waiting on all the dead dentists.

 

It sounds like from your posts that you are too young to know much about the beginning of OSHA and what the conditions were like. I was around when OSHA came into being. It was not welcomed but I did see a lot less accidents than before they existed. I worked under a man who lost most of his arm in an industrial wood planer. That would be unheard of today. Many many accidents today are unheard of because of regulations instituted by OSHA.

To think that people will work safely and ethically is simply not true. Some are willfully defiant and others are ignorant. A friend of mine had a worker who worked doing masonry work without gloves and ended up in the hospital due to lime poisioning. Had he used the proper procedure he would have not been sick.

The number one in accident is due to poor housekeeping.

OSHA does provide for an appeal. So I tend to think that there was much more behind the scenes than just a colored floor in the plant where you worked. They do not shut down a plant of operation unless they deem the operation unsafe to the point where it can be immediately dangerous and potentially cause death or be very harmful.

Imagine a 12" wide bandsaw blade 60 feet long snaking out of a bandsaw and flying around in the room where people are working. OSHA put a stop to that.

I had a supervisor who was a Christian killed because he did not follow the proper OSHA safety rules. HE knew better and fell off of the building at 45 ft. high. One of the workers was quite near him and tried to keep him from falling. He was able to touch the man's hand but could not grab onto him. He did not attend the funeral and for a long time had a hard time dealing with the trauma of knowing that he was so close to saving the man. We had worked together for three years by that time. So imagine the impact it left on all of us. That could have all been prevented if he had followed the proper procedure. He left behind a family without any kind of income except what Worker's Comp gave his family. It was tough looking at his family and realizing what they were going through.

When OSHA first started they came on like police and later realized that did not work very well. Then they worked for compliance and that worked much better. The fact is that employers work to make things safe. It is very hard in my profession to begin a business and get insurance. If you are a company known for not complying with OSHA, you will be put out of business by both OSHA and the insurance company.

Maybe you do not like OSHA but don't you feel a sense of ethical responsibility as a Christian to promote a safe workplace? If you do not like OSHA how would suggest that be done ranging from the equipment manufacturer down to the field worker.

I managed a facility and we were never cited for any violations while paying about 16% more than anyone else in the business. We had the best material and had the most business. The company was owned by a Christian man and he expected ethical practices or a person would be terminated. Ethical practices can be followed and business can be conducted in a Christlike manner and still be profitable.

Our insurance modifier was 0.75. A friend of mine has a modifier for his business of 0.58. Because he is safe he only pays 58 cents of every dollar that the average company in his business would pay. So he can afford to pay his workers more because they work safely.

Almost every area of the American society has been affected in a good way in terms of safety and the dealing of harmful chemicals. It is documented that so many industries had been dumping pollutants into the air in violation of any kind of regulations. Imagine the people who suffered due to those practices. Things such as birth defects and diseases which were not present before.

I can remember the day when we saw trash on the rivers and fish dead floating on the rivers due to pollutants from industries dumping into the river. I can remember when fish was not to be eaten because of pollutants in the rivers and oceans. At one time the orange trees were dying and my eyes would burn because of the smog when I would trave through Los Angeles. The signs above the freeways would be coated with black soot from vehicles. Cars today have more power and get better fuel mileage. I drive a Toyota Camry and that car has hardly gone up in price in the last 8 years. It meets the EPA regulations in all 50 states and get better gas mileage than any car I have owned. It is the cheapest car I have ever owned. The problem is not the EPA or OSHA but the greedeaters at the top levels of business wanting their multi-million dollar incomes. In about the 1950s the ratio of the top person to the person with the lowest income was 8 to 1 now it is about 500 to 1.

 

OSHA has a tendency to come up with some off the wall regulations that cost business a lot of money, even forcing some small businesses to close.

They frequently grossly understate the cost of implementation. By intent or just dumb is hard to tell.

 

A few years ago I left the business world to teach and have some students who are in business. After they are in class a short time I often hear the comment that they need to charge more for their work. About 80% of the businesses fail within the first two years. Most of it is due to a lack of business understanding not a lack of understanding the trade portion. I made it in the construction business starting while in college in 1979 when the economy was at rock bottom when interest rates were outrageous, so I think others can do the same thing if they pay close attention to details and gaining the necessary skills to be successful. A lot of business also fail because of greed and trying to get too big too quickly.