Occupational Safety and Health Act

United States 1970

Synopsis

A tragic byproduct of the Industrial Revolution was an alarming rate of death, serious injury, and illness among the generally young, poorly trained, and often immigrant workers. By the 1960s, 14,000 workers were dying on the job each year. Individual states and the U.S. government were making disjointed efforts to provide safer and healthier workplaces, but labor, politicians, and the general public all recognized that a federal agency was needed to coordinate efforts. A bill was promoted in President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration but it died in Congress. The legislature quickly introduced a new bill, and in December 1970, President Richard M. Nixon signed into law the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which established OSHA, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, and two other supportive agencies.

Timeline

• 1950: North Korean troops pour into South Korea, starting the Korean War.
• 1955: Signing of the Warsaw Pact by the Soviet Union and its satellites in eastern Europe.
• 1959: Alaska and Hawaii become the last states added to the Union.
• 1965: Arrest of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and more than 2,600 others in Selma, Alabama. Three weeks later, in New York City, Malcolm X is assassinated.
• 1967: Arabs attack Israel, launching the Six-Day War, which results in an Israeli victory.
• 1970: After thirty-two months of civil war in Nigeria, Biafran secessionists surrender in January.
• 1970: Nixon sends U.S. troops into Cambodia on 30 April. Four days later, National Guardsmen open fire on antiwar protesters at Kent State University in Ohio. By 24 June antiwar sentiment is so strong that the Senate repeals the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. On 29 June, Nixon orders troops back out of Cambodia.
• 1970: Gamal Abdel Nasser, father of Arab nationalism and mentor of younger leaders such as Libya's Muammar al-Qaddafi, dies.
• 1973: Signing of peace accords in Paris in January ends the Vietnam War.
• 1975: Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge launch a campaign of genocide in Cambodia.
• 1980: In protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter keeps U.S. athletes out of the Moscow Olympics.
• 1985: A new era begins in the USSR as Konstantin Chernenko dies and is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, who at fiftyfour years old is the youngest Soviet leader in decades.

Event and Its Context

The Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 that established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was signed into law on 29 December 1970 by President Richard M. Nixon. To some it is known as the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act in honor of Congressman Harrison A. Williams Jr. of New Jersey and Senator William A. Steiger of Wisconsin, who led the fight to get the act passed from the time a similar bill was defeated in President Johnson's administration in 1968. The act has also been called the Safety Bill of Rights.

In the Introduction to Public Law 91-596, 91st Congress, S.2193, 29 December 1970—as the document is titled—under the simple heading, "An Act," it states the purpose of the bill is "to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women; by authorizing enforcement of standards developed under the Act; by assisting the States in their efforts to assure safe and healthful working conditions; by providing for research, information, education, and training in the field of occupational safety and health; and for other purposes."

The law required the formation of three different permanent agencies to carry out the mandates of the bill. The first and key agency is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the official OSHA. This agency comes under the Labor Department with an assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health as the head. OSHA sets and enforces workplace safety and health standards. When it was formed, OSHA was given two years to set up federal and consensus standards. Many standards were first adopted from respected organizations such as the American National Standards Institute, the National Fire Protection Association (popularly known as NFPA), and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. OSHA is also involved in education and outreach programs aimed at accident prevention.

The second agency is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which was initially part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), a cabinet-level department created by President Eisenhower in 1953. In 1980, HEW was renamed the Department of Health and Human Services. NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Department of Health and Human Services where it is responsible for research on occupational safety and health matters.

The third agency created is the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC). This independent federal agency handles disputes between the Department of Labor and employers regarding OSHA enforcement actions. OSHRC is not part of any other federal department. The purpose of this approach was to enable OSHRC to provide impartial judgments. There are two levels of adjudication. If the first level judge does not resolve the case, it is reviewed by the agency's Commissioners for final settlement.

The Long Struggle

The industrial revolution in the nineteenth century brought more than mass production of material goods. It produced misery for common workers in the form of industrial accidents. After the Civil War in the United States factories proliferated and with them chemicals, dusts, and unguarded machinery and a workforce that was generally young and inadequately trained; many were new immigrants. As the number of grisly accidents and deaths grew, so did a labor movement devoted to convincing states to pass safety and health laws. Massachusetts passed the first factory inspection law in 1877. By 1890 eight more states had factory inspections, 13 required machine guarding, and 21 had some regulations for health hazards.

The start of the twentieth century is sometimes called the Progressive Era for the group in American society who worked for a better and safer lifestyle. Newspapers and national magazines were widely circulated. In 1907 a coal mine disaster in West Virginia killed 362 miners. The tragic news was carried across the country. The public outcry led to the formation of the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1910 to promote mine safety. News of the working hazards in the steel industry, where about 1200 out of every 10,000 workers were killed or seriously injured, led to the formation of the National Safety Council in 1915. Two years earlier the U.S. Congress created a Department of Labor with the secretary of labor specifically commissioned to report on industrial disease and accidents.

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Frances Perkins secretary of labor. She was the first woman cabinet member in the U.S. Perkins brought experience in occupational safety and health from her earlier work in New York. The U.S. Public Health Service began funding programs that were run by state health departments. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 included provisions to bar workers under 18 from hazardous occupations. Perkins led the Department of Labor until 1945.

Unfortunately by the 1950s the federal-state partnerships were inadequate to protect workers. The secretary of labor was given power to prosecute willful violators for the workers covered under an amendment to the 1958 Workers' Compensation Act. In 1960, the Department of Labor acquired more authority and began applying occupational safety and health regulations to a wide range of industrial settings, but those efforts were not well received. Business protested that the rules were too restrictive, and there was growing resentment that the federal regulations were replacing state efforts.

By 1965 pollution in the environment had become an added public concern. The Public Health Service produced a report, "Protecting the Health of Eighty Million Americans," that cited dangers from the rapidly growing use of technology and new chemicals. The AFL-CIO labor unions called on President Johnson to support the major national occupational health and safety efforts suggested in the report. A mining tragedy again brought action. This was not as dramatic as the coal mine disaster, but it was a major public concern as it revealed the high death rate in the uranium industry. Conflicting opinions regarding safe levels of exposure and who had responsibility precipitated Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz's announcement of standards.

At the start of 1968 President Johnson asked Congress to develop an occupational safety and health program that was essentially the same as the one that the Department of Labor had put in place. Wirtz led the first hearings and pointed out that there were two casualty lists in America: one from the Vietnam War and one from industrial accidents. The Labor Department pushed hard for legislation. The booklet "On the Job Slaughter," published by the Labor Department, featured horrendous pictures of accident victims, but unfortunately the pictures were old and the publicity backfired. The Johnson-supported legislation never came to a vote.

In 1969, in spite of considerable disagreement on who should be leading occupational safety and health measures, the legislature introduced new bills similar to the Johnson general health and safety bill. In that year it was estimated that every month while the debates of who is responsible continued, 1,100 U.S. workers would die.

Labor leader George Meany, president of AFL-CIO, supported the bill. Also, activist groups such as those led by consumer advocate Ralph Nader kept fighting for a number of causes including occupational safety. Their work is credited with contributing to the formation of OSHA. Nader's efforts also are credited as influential in the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

A Rough Start in Troubled Times

OSHA was conceived and began operation in a period of political turmoil. The hopelessness of the Vietnam War drove President Johnson to not seek another term in 1969. Fortunately, the Occupational Safety and Health Act survived and became law in President Nixon's first year in office. Nixon had a goal he called New Federalism to establish new working partnerships between the federal government and the states. However, that policy was not pushed with OSHA. The spotty history of occupational health and safety in the hands of states had prompted the creation of the federal agency. The law does provide for state programs that offer workers protection "as effective as" what is provided in the federal program. Among OSHA's responsibilities is oversight of the state programs.

The first head of OSHA was George Guenther. He had been the head of a family hosiery manufacturing firm and also brought to the position experience in the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. Guenther described his philosophy for the agency as one of striving to be "responsive and reasonable." An early decision to seek voluntary compliance by companies was well received by business. Limited resources required OSHA to target investigation of catastrophic accidents and employer compliance in the most dangerous and unhealthy work environments. The first standard that was set by OSHA was for asbestos fiber exposure. In 1969, an asbestos-related illness expert, Dr. Irving J. Selikoff of Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital, predicted that 40 percent of the nation's 36,000 insulation installers could die of asbestos-related cancer.

In spite of Guenther's goal to be reasonable, OSHA rushed to enforce rules immediately in 1971 rather than take the two years allowed in the law, a policy that was very poorly received. Counting on states to be far more active in OSHA's goals than they were, Guenther had underestimated the need for enforcement staff. Adding to these troubles, a very damaging internal memo surfaced during the 1974 Watergate investigations. The memo indicated that Nixon was looking for ways to tailor OSHA's programs to increase business support for his reelection campaign in 1972. There is no evidence that Guenther acted on the memo, but the revelation tarnished the agency's reputation at the time.

Meany and Nader both began speaking out for the full implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Nader prepared a condemning report titled Occupational Epidemic. Business leaders gave mixed reviews. Small businesses opposed OSHA; large organizations mostly tolerated it, but some challenged the competence of OSHA inspectors. Bills were entered in Congress in 1972 to limit OSHA's powers, principally to exempt small employers. Several bills made their way to Nixon's desk but were stopped with a presidential veto.

Nixon replaced most of his political appointees in 1972, including Guenther. With the political problems in Washington, D.C., it is not surprising that OSHA continued to be an agency in crisis. Nixon had just appointed a new secretary of the Department of Labor when there were two serious workplace accidents: first, an explosion of a large liquefied natural gas tank in New York that killed 40, and three weeks later, a high-rise building under construction near Washington collapsed killing more than a dozen, just as John H. Stender, an official on the Boilermakers Union, was appointed the new head of OSHA.

As a labor leader, Stender seemed an ideal choice for the job, but he had little administrative experience. Under his leadership a number of new standards were put into place, including one for vinyl chloride in 1974 when an epidemic of liver cancer was discovered among workers. That same year, Senator Williams' labor subcommittee charged the agency with being "shackled by administrative ineptitude." Stender is not blamed for the crises, but the agency was being seriously criticized by labor and big business, as well as Congress, by the time he left in 1975.

OSHA Finally Gets Respect

When President Nixon resigned in August 1974 and President Gerald R. Ford came into office, OSHA was a distressed agency. Ford appointed a new secretary of labor, John Dunlop, who recognized that getting OSHA on the right track should be a priority. At about this time, Nicholas Ashford of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a Ford Foundation study on the politics and economics of job safety. The study concluded that occupational safety and health was too big a task for any government agency to handle alone. It required the cooperation of all involved. The study was a blueprint for reform.

An interim team of OSHA leaders directed OSHA to concentrate on the most dangerous and unhealthy workplaces, the 30 percent which reported workplace casualties. They started with focusing on foundries, metal casting, and stamping operations. The program included special training for inspectors and assistance to state governments, industry, unions, and others to get voluntary compliance.

The appointment in 1975 of Morton Corn, a professor of occupational health and chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, to lead OSHA was a major step in the right direction. Corn brought professionalism to the job. He was appreciated by business because he stressed cooperation among the groups involved in occupational safety and health. He was also soon tested on the job. On 1 January 1976 the news broke that 29 workers at a small chemical plant in Virginia had been exposed to a pesticide that sent them to the hospital with nerve damage. One worker had tried earlier to contact OSHA, but there had been no follow-up.

Corn quickly reformed the agency, hiring qualified inspectors and improving the competence of those on the job. He established a data center to provide quick technical information. He proposed a number of important standards including one for coke ovens and an improved standard for cotton dust. He worked to improve relations with NIOSH.

AFL-CIO president George Meany at one point challenged the OSHA for being slow to issue new standards on asbestos, ammonia, lead, arsenic, cotton dust, and other substances, but he was appeased with some voluntary guidelines for lead, mercury, and silica until permanent standards could be issued.

There was considerable political wrangling between President Ford and the secretary of labor, who resigned in January 1976. Corn stayed on and a new secretary was appointed. When President Carter was elected at the end of 1976, Corn was not retained, although overall OSHA was more respected for all the reform and professionalism that Corn brought to the agency during his brief tenure.

Overview of OSHA

Thirty years after OSHA was created, in the spring of 2001, the agency published a review of its three decades of progress in their newsletter JSHQ (Job Safety and Health Quarterly). The responsibilities of OSHA have increased tremendously over the years. When the agency was set up in 1971 it was responsible for 56 million workers in 3.5 million workplaces. Thirty years later OSHA had responsibility to provide guidance for the occupational safety and health of 105 million workers at 6.9 million workplaces. During those 30 years, workplace fatalities have been reduced by half, and injury and illness rates decreased by 40 percent of the 1971 rate. Particularly in light of the increases in workers and workplaces, these are significant achievements.

OSHA still considers its size as a government agency small. There were 2,370 OSHA employees in 2001 but OSHA also had 2, 948 partners in state agencies. That is an outstanding statement of cooperation that developed in spite of the agency being founded at a very troubled time in America's political history. OSHA's strategy for success has evolved through the years. In 2001 OSHA concentrated its attention on highly hazardous industries and sites with high injury rates. However, if a death occurs in a workplace anywhere, the employer must report it to OSHA within eight hours.

Education and outreach programs to promote health and safety have become an integral part of OSHA. In Des Plains, Illinois, OSHA operates its Training Institute, which was established in 1972. OSHA also encourages companies with exemplary safety and health records through the Voluntary Protection Programs. Free consultations were begun in 1975.

Most of OSHA's early standards for the safe handling of hazardous materials were adopted from respected agencies that were already involved in safety. Some standards that OSHA sites as particular milestones include: a 1978 cotton dust standard intended to prevent as many cases of "brown lung" as possible; lead standards (also in 1978); grain handling (in 1987) to protect workers at nearly 24,000 grain elevators from the dangers of explosion and fire; and in 1991, standards for occupational exposure to blood-borne pathogens to protect 5.6 million workers against AIDS, hepatitis B, and other diseases.

Key Players

Guenther, George Carpenter (1931-): Guenther was the first assistant secretary of labor to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Prior to that position, he had been the director of the Bureau of Labor Standards in the Department of Labor.

Meany, George (1894-1980): Meany served as the first president of the combined unions, AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations). He was influential in the establishment of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. He also played a major role in the AFL-CIO's international activities.

Nader, Ralph (1934-): Nader, a lawyer, has made a career of consumer advocacy. Among the groups he founded are the Center for Responsive Law and the Public Interest Research Group. Nader was influential in the establishment of both OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Wirtz, William Willard (1912-): Wirtz was secretary of the Labor Department from 1962-1969. He strongly supported the first bill to establish an agency to coordinate occupational safety and health that was introduced in the Johnson administration.

See also: Department of Labor; Fair Labor Standards Act.

Bibliography

Periodicals

Fleming, Susan Hall. "OSHA at 30: Three Decades of Progress in Occupational Health and Safety." In JSHQ 12, no. 3 (spring 2001): 23-32.

"Industrial Safety: The Toll of Neglect." Time (7 February1969): 76-77.

Other

MacLaury, Judson. "The Job Safety Law of 1970: Its Passage Was Perilous." DOL History In-Depth. 2002 [cited 18 July 2002]. <http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/osha.htm>.

U.S. Department of Labor. "Dunlop/Corn Administration, 1975-1977: Reform and professionalism." DOL History In-Depth Research 3. 2002 [cited 18 July 2002]. http:// www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/osha13corn.htm .

——. "John Stender Administration, 1973-1975: OSHABecomes an Agency in Crisis." DOL History In-Depth Research 2. 2002 [cited 18 July 2002] http:// www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/osha13stender.htm .

——. "OSHA Act 1970" DOL History In-Depth Research.2002 [cited 18 July 2002]. <http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owasrch.search_form?p_doc_type=OSHACT&p_toc_level=0&p_keyvalue= >.

——. "Overview of the Nixon-Ford Administration at the Department of Labor, 1969-1977." DOL History In-Depth Research. 1977 [cited 18 July 2002]. http:// www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webidnixonford.htm.

Additional Resources

Other

MacLaury, Judson. "A Brief History: The U.S. Department of Labor." DOL History Annals of the Department. 2001 [cited 18 July 2002]. <http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/dolhistoxford.htm>.

U.S. Department of Labor. "Eula Bingham Administration, 1977-1981: Of Minnows, Whales and 'Common Sense'." DOL History In-Depth Research 4. 2002 [cited 18 July 2002]. <http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/osha13bingham.htm>.

——. "Thorne Auchter Administration, 1981-1984: 'Oh, What a (Regulatory) Relief'." DOL History In-Depth Research 5. 2002 [cited 18 July 2002]. http:// www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/osha13auchter.htm .

—M. C. Nagel