The future is now. Developing effective workplace inspection in the United States

Details

• Personal Author:
  Wegman, David H.
• Description:
  The picture that OSHA has presented to the public has been one of conflicts between various interest groups, several new occupational standards, and little evidence that there has been a substantial change in risks experienced by the worker in the factory or the office. To examine OSHA's inspection experience and what OSHA may wish to accomplish in the next 5 years there is a need to turn to data on the impact of inspections to develop the answer. This included determining the magnitude of the different disease and hazard problems in industry as well as developing information on trends in these problems. Such a search would discover that there is essentially no reliable information for such an evaluation. A proposal currently exists which suggests that development of hazard surveillance information may offer a means to estimate disease burden, to monitor changes in that burden, and most importantly, to target specific areas that should receive priority attention for inspection and control of hazards. The author concludes that a plan is needed to increase inspection numbers by improving targeting and reducing paper work, and upgrade the willingness to readily impose penalties after initial warning. Inspections in the future must include consideration of a data base that permits surveillance of compliance activities, an inspection plan that greatly increases coverage, and a targeting system that is flexible and directed at both acute and long term risks. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Hazardous Substances Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Diseases Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Health-hazards Industrial-hazards Legislation NIOSH-Publication Occupational-diseases Occupational-health Regulations Workplace-monitoring
• ISBN:
  9780897665230
• ISSN:
  0077-8923
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  224-227
• Volume:
  572
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00202353
• Citation:
  Ann NY Acad Sci 1989 Dec; 572:224-227
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1990
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:dac0296bae8d57302ae9dc4040f490fb588a11f4fc1fe1a097869e31fc760e9f46384c918d35b32cca6000f36a72635d62f077b8ae67a5e75f4de1c4cf8a2f51
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/205726/cdc_205726_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 278.72 KB ]