Barton: OSHA's 'invisibility' problem

Barton: OSHA's 'invisibility' problem

Published on SavannahNow.com (http://savannahnow.com)
Barton: OSHA's 'invisibility' problem
By Tom Barton
Created 2008-03-05 00:30
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforces rules that protect America's workers at 7.2 million work sites in this country.

It does so with 1,300 compliance officers.

Do the math.

Then ask the question.

If each compliance officer is responsible for an average 5,538 work sites, then how effective are all those workplace safety laws that are on the books? And that's not counting the estimated 300 job vacancies that OSHA apparently has at any one time. The actual average case load per officer, in other words, may be closer to 7,000 workplaces.

Forget for a moment the debate over tougher rules for airborne dust, which caused the deadly blast and fire at the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth that killed a dozen workers and critically burned 11 more on Feb. 7.

Let the politicians in Washington fight that battle.

If you're a typical OSHA compliance officer in the field, and you simply want to do a better job of spreading the word about dust dangers, which is part of a national emphasis program that OSHA launched last October, here's what you need:

More help.

Indeed, if the last time an OSHA compliance officer dropped in on the Imperial Sugar refinery was eight years ago to investigate a complaint from a worker (termed unfounded), then OSHA isn't just stretched too thin where it counts the most. It's almost invisible.

Edwin Foulke Jr. is OSHA's director and serves as an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington.

He told this newspaper's editorial board Monday that enacting a new standard for dust, which the federal government's designated experts recommended in October 2006, isn't as easy as it sounds.

"It's not a simple standard to develop," Foulke said.

Fair enough.

Chemically speaking, all dust isn't alike. For example, OSHA might have to set one standard for sugar dust and a different standard for plastic dust. And coal dust. And grain dust.

And even dried blood dust.

But the longer OSHA waits on a standard, the longer real hazards go undetected. So to help defuse potential time bombs, the agency launched a national program last October that targets industries where dust is an issue.

This sounds good in theory. But in practice, there's too few officers and too many places too visit. Case in point: No officer made it to Imperial Sugar between October and the first week in February.

Putting more compliance officers on OSHA's payroll means more dollars. That's a political issue. And for now, neither the Bush administration nor Congress appear willing to shake any money loose.

However, Foulke said OSHA was doing something in the meantime. He said the agency was sending a letter to thousands of employers this week, strongly encouraging them to abate dust hazards.

That's sure to get plenty of attention - from executive secretaries.

They've got to clean out the boss's in-box. For real dust clean-ups, OSHA should save the money on stamps, go for the real bucks and hire more compliance officers. Then turn them loose.


Tom Barton is the editorial page editor of the Savannah Morning News. His e-mail address: tom.barton@savannahnow.com [1].


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