New Rules for OSHA

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nysun.com/opinion/new-rules-for-osha/82188/

By DIANA FURCHTGOTT-ROTH | July 18, 2008

The Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has rules that protect workers against extremely unlikely events, but no rules to protect workers from some more likely hazards. We can do better.

It's good news, then, that the Labor Department is proposing new rules for evaluating different health risks. This rationalized approach to worker on-the-job safety will reduce costs to business — which helps to preserve jobs — without spending money on needless bureaucratic procedures. Both American workers and the American public will benefit.

According to a summary released yesterday by the Office of Management and Budget, "The proposed rule requires DOL agencies to follow a consistent, reliable, and transparent set of procedures when conducting risk assessments, outlines the components that should be included in a risk assessment, and provides for improved public access to rulemaking information."

Once OMB has reviewed and approved the draft of proposed rulemaking from the Department of Labor, as is expected, it will be published in the Federal Register and the public — including employees and unions — will have at least 30 days to try to influence the final shape of the new rules.

The major units of the Labor Department that would be affected are the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Congress first recognized the problem of inconsistency in evaluating health risks in 1990 and created a Presidential Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management. The commission convened in May 1994, its members appointed by the then-Democratic Congress, President Clinton, and the president of the National Academy of Sciences.

FULL story at link.