Page 42 - OHS, January/February 2022

90TH ANNIVERSARY
some of the historic events that preceded the creation of OSHA.
Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire. In 1911, a fifire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City. ThThe fire led to the death of 146 workers (out of the 500 people employed at the company), and is known as one of the worst work- related disasters in U.S. history. The tragic result of the fire was attributed to locked doors that trapped workers inside the facility without any means for escape. The building also lacked fire escapes and proper fire exit protocols. Due to the sheer magnitude of fire’s destruction, the public outcry was deafening. This tragic event is said to have gotten the ball rolling on future safety and health regulations.3
Production for World War I. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, war production became a national necessity with American factory employees working hard to produce wartime needs for their country. The Department of Labor had been loosely constructed in 1913, and after four years the department turned its eyes to war labor programs. The department did a brief survey of conditions and recommended the following key elements of a national war labor policy: elimination of war profiteering, recognition of the right of workers to bargain collectively, establishment of machinery to adjust grievances and the sanctioning of the 8-hour day with overtime pay for any time worked beyond eight hours. This program, which would come to be called the War Labor Administration gained popularity with then-president Woodrow Wilson and support from organized labor.4
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Roosevelt as the Secretary of Labor, Francis Perkins was the first woman to serve as a cabinet secretary. Her efforts and involvement in FDR’s New Deal laws made her an instrumental part of advocating for industrial safety and workers’ rights. In 1933, Perkins outlined the policy priorities she would pursue: a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, unemployment compensation, worker’s compensation, abolition of child labor, direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief, Social Security, a revitalized federal employment service and universal health insurance. In 1938, Congress would go on to enact the Fair Labor Standards Act which established a minimum wage and maximum work hour as well as banned child labor. By the time she left office, she’d accomplished all but one of the items she’d set out to prioritize: universal access to healthcare.5
Uptick in Worker Fatalities. In the 1960’s, economic expansion led to an increase in worker fatalities and injuries with as many as 14,000 workers dying each year and 2.2 million out of work due to injury or illness. This began to put pressure on the federal government to establish an administration and policy to protect workers from workplace-related injury, illness and death.6
From Gravel to Concrete
In 1971, the Department of Labor established the Occupational Safety and Health Act which required the Secretary of Labor to set and enforce safety and health standards for almost all of the nation’s workplaces. This was no easy feat, however. The OSH Act was one of the most controversial programs in the Department’s history.
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OSH Act was under formation, Congress debated who would have the responsibility to enforce the standards put forth under the Act. There were two sides: those who wanted the DOL to do the enforcing and those who wanted a third-party agency to step in. A compromise was ultimately reached, giving the Department of Labor the responsibility of enforcement, thus the creation of OSHA.7
After the OSH Act was signed into law, controversy continued. Early on, inspectors were called “nitpickers,” and the cost of compliance rose considerably as standards were developed. Due to this, the agency’s program was reevaluated and health scientists brought forth the solution to concentrate on more serious workplace problems for the time being. The first OSHA standards issued were for asbestos, lead, carcinogens and cotton dust.
In the 1980’s, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in a landmark decision that workers could, for the first time ever, have the right to refuse to do unsafe tasks. OSHA also issued a standard that gave workers the right to know what chemicals they were working with and how it could impact their health. This standard also required employers to provide medical and exposure records for employees. In addition to the standard on chemicals, new standards on safety testing and certification of workplace equipment, and important worker protections for combustible grain dust, trenching, noise and hazardous energy were issued.
For the next three decades, OSHA would go on to issue standards to protect workers from bloodborne pathogens, toxic substances, hazards associated with confined spaces and laboratories. Significant events like the attacks on
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38 Occupational Health & Safety | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 www.ohsonline.com