Safety And Health Act Of 1970 Essay

Before the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act

(OSH Act) of 1970 was enacted, safety and health issues were limited to safety and health laws for specific industries and laws that governed federal contractors. It was during this period, prior to the enactment of the OSH Act in 1970, that Congress gradually began to regulate specific areas of safety and health in the American workplace through such laws as the Walsh Healey Public Contracts Act of 1936, the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, the Coal Mine Safety Act of 1952, and the McNamara O’Hara Public Service Contract Act of 1965.

With the passage of the then controversial OSH Act in 1970, federal and state government agencies became actively involved in managing health and safety in the private sector workplace. Employers were placed on notice that unsafe and unhealthful conditions and acts would no longer be permitted to endanger

Each state possesses the ability to request and be granted the right to adopt state safety and health regulations and enforcement mechanisms. The OSH Act provides that any state “which, at any time, desires to assume responsibility for development and the enforcement therein of occupational safety and health standards relating to any issue with respect to which a federal standard has been promulgated shall submit a state plan for the development of such standards and their enforcement.”

Before a state plan can be placed into effect, the state must develop and submit its pro-posed program to the secretary of labor for review and approval. The secretary must certify that the state plan’s standards are “at least as effective” as the federal standards and that the state will devote adequate resources to ad-ministering and enforcing its