IME 2010 – Safety Engineering

 1864 – The Pennsylvania Mine Safety Act was

passed into law
 1864 – North America’s first accident insurance
policy was issued
 1867 – Massachusetts instituted the first
government sponsored factory inspection
program
 1877 – Massachusetts passed a law requiring
guarding for dangerous machinery
 1878 – the first recorded call by a labor organization
for federal occupational safety and health was heard
 1896 – the National Fire Protection Association was
founded
 1902 Maryland passed the first workers’
compensation law
 1904 – Supreme Court declared Maryland’s workers’
compensation law to be unconstitutional
 1911-1915 – During this period, 30 states passed
workers’ compensation laws
 1916 – the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of
state workers’ compensation laws
 1936 – Secretary of Labor calls for federal occupational
safety and health law
 1936 – Walsh-Healy Act passed requiring federal contracts
to be fulfilled in a safe and healthful working environment
 1952 – Coal Mine Safety Act was signed into law
 1968 – President Lyndon Johnson called for an
occupational safety and health law
 1970 – President Nixon signed the OSHAct, creating the
OSHA administration and the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
 In 1970, the congress considered annual figures
such as these:
 Job-related accidents accounted for more than 14,000
worker deaths
 Nearly 2 million workers were disabled
 Ten times as many person-days were lost from job-
related disabilities as from strikes
 Estimated new cased of occupational diseases totaled
300,000
 “…to assure so far as possible every working
man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful
working conditions and to preserve our human
resources.”
 the right to be fully informed
 to participate actively, and
 to appeal actions.
 Encourage employers and employees to reduce
workplace hazards and to implement new or improve
existing safety and health programs
 Provide for research in occupational safety and
health to develop innovative ways of dealing with
occupational safety and health problems
 Establish separate but dependent responsibilities for
employers and employees for the achievement of
better safety and health conditions
 Maintain a reporting and recordkeeping system to
monitor job-related injuries and illnesses
 Establish training programs to increase the
number and competence of occupational safety
and health personnel
 Develop mandatory job safety and health
standards and enforce them effectively
 Provide for the development, analysis,
evaluation, and approval of state occupational
safety and health programs
 Coverage extends to all employers and their
employees in the 50 states, the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, and all territories under Federal
Government jurisdiction.
 The following are not covered under the Act:
 Self-employed persons
 Farms where only immediate family members are
employed
 Working conditions regulated by other federal agencies
under other statutes
 OSHA is responsible for promulgating legally
enforceable standards
 Employers must become familiar with standards
applicable to their workplaces
 Employees must comply with all appropriate
rules and regulations
 Where OSHA has no specific standard, the Act’s
general duty clause applies:
 “Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees
employment and a place of employment which is free
from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely
to cause death or serious physical harm to his
employees.”
 Standards-setting may begin by OSHA’s initiative
or by petitions from other parties.
 Advisory Committees may develop
recommendations.
 If a standard is to be proposed, amended, or
revoked, it is published in the Federal Register.
 After the comment period ends, the final text is
published in the Federal Register.
 Every establishment covered under the Act is
subject to inspection
 Inspections are conducted without advance
notice, although special circumstances may
require OSHA to contact an employer prior to an
inspection
 OSHA may not conduct warrantless inspections
without an employer’s consent
 Imminent danger
 Catastrophes and fatal accidents
 Employee complaints
 May be handled by phone
 Programmed inspections
 Follow-up inspections
 Inspector arrives and presents credentials
 Opening conference
 Inspection tour
 Closing conference
 Inspection results
 Appeals process