Opinion ID: 320371
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Occupational Safety and Health Act

Text: 3 Technological progress in industry appears not to have been accompanied uniformly by corresponding reductions in the health hazards of industrial working conditions. More than 2.2 million persons are disabled on the job each year, and in 1967 the Surgeon General estimated that approximately 400,000 new cases of occupational disease would occur in each succeeding year. 1 The Chairman of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare summarized the problem as follows: 4 Not only are occupational diseases which first came to light at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution still undermining the health of workers, but new substances, new processes, and new sources of energy are presenting health problems of ever-in-creasing complexity. 5 Foreword, Legislative History of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (hereinafter Legis.Hist.). 6 OSHA, the first comprehensive attempt by Congress to deal with these problems, 2 covers every employer whose business affects interstate commerce. 3 Eschewing any attempt to establish substantive provisions to control all these various employers, the Act erects a general framework to govern the development of regulations, and delegates the task of formulating particular health and safety standards to the Secretary of Labor. Civil and criminal sanctions are provided to enforce compliance. 7 OSHA specifies the procedure to be followed in the promulgation of standards, and provides for the establishment of a research institute and the appointment of advisory committees to assist the Secretary. 4 The substantive provisions of the Act impose a general obligation upon employers to provide safe working conditions. 29 U.S.C. 654(a)(1) (1970). The Secretary is required to promulgate standards to control particular health hazards that come to his attention. Certain types of controls, including monitoring, medical examinations, warnings, record keeping, and specific protective measures are specified by the statute itself, but the decision as to when and how they should be required with regard to particular health hazards is left to the Secretary.