The Occupational Safety and Health Act Essay -- Workforce Safety Regul

The Occupational Safety and Health Act Just imagine working in an environment where there are very few safety regulations, and little safety equipment. Think of how it was for employees of a steel manufacturing plant to work where there are almost no safety regulations and safety hazards all around you. This is how the work environment was before 1970; there were only few laws or regulations that required employers to maintain certain safety standards or working conditions for employees. However in 1970 President Richard Nixon sought to change all of this by signing into law the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). The Occupational Safety and Health Act’s mission is to assure the safety and health of America's workers by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, and education; and encouraging continual improvement in workplace safety and health (OSHA.org). OSHA covers an extremely wide array of workers, from construction workers to office workers. However when the act was first passed it was not heavily enforced and lacked inspectors. In 1970 because there were three times as many fish and game wardens than there were OSHA inspectors, people said that the trout and quail were more protected than Americas working men and women (Bennett, Alexander, & Hartman, 2003). Though today OSHA has approximately 2100 inspectors, plus complaint discrimination investigators, engineers, physicians, educators, standards writers, and other technical and support pers...