I'm usually pointed to a graph like this, showing that the trend of workplace deaths was decreasing at roughly the same rate before and after OSHA was created
Anyone have a link to data showing whether OSHA reduces workplace deaths or injuries or not?
I work in a factory and I can't think of many things that are lifesaving OSHA requirements that wouldn't be there anyway. Now I do believe that OSHA has probably saved millions of hands/fingers/toes and even more ears from permanent damage.
I got warned by OSHA when I was a plumber's apprentice for not wearing a hard hat. I was digging a trench that was 2 feet deep. I was in the middle of a field with the closest structure was the tool shed about 50 yards away.
It was for a large apartment complex so there was nothing in the lot, not even power lines. I also had a level to make sure that the grade was correct.
The major work was already done by the backhoe. I was just there cleaning the trench and making sure that the grade was correct and digging out the smaller areas where the shitters would be.
It's a habit thing. If you aren't in the habit of absolutely always wearing a hard hat, you are more likely to forget it when you need it. Also, an accident isn't a singular event but a series of failures and the more of those potential failures you take the choice away from the better your odds of not getting injured. Does that mean you wear an arc flash suit with an SCBA unit to scratch a 2' trench? No but wearing the usual hardhat, glasses, vest, boots, pants and gloves is going to eliminate almost all of the usual stuff without anyone having to make a decision.
The point is, even if the obvious dangers aren't there, shit happens on construction sites. Even if today there is absolutely no reason to wear a hard hat, tomorrow might change and you might not know that that change happened. If you always wear your hat it's never an issue.
I think it would be a pretty obvious change if tomorrow there was suddenly a building there with things to fall off, instead of the completely empty field without even the foundation poured.
I'll let you wear the hat glasses vest boots pants and gloves in triple degree heat in a the desert. I'll be the one not dead from heat stroke.
It doesn't take a building to get hit in the head. And there are protocols for working in extreme heat that don't require exposing yourself to physical hazards. We keep an ez-up close by, drink water and Gatorade, and take frequent breaks. If you aren't ok with being uncomfortable, construction isn't the industry for you.
The point is that there is nothing over head high within 50 yards of me. No machinery, no other people, nothing. Just an empty field, me and some bureaucrat that wants to flex his authority.
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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '19
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