OSHA Introduces QuickTakes
FY2003 Budget Request for OSHA Emphasizes Continued Outreach, Enforcement
Workplace Injury/Illness Rates Drop to Historic Lows
OSHA Supports Voluntary Product Stewardship Programs
Help for Hispanic Businesses and Workers
OSHA Aids Postal Service, Senate on Anthrax Decontamination
3,500 Sites Receive OSHA Recordkeeping Satellite Training
Welcome to QuickTakes - a new OSHA e-memo filled with timely information about agency activities that we hope you will find interesting and useful as you make decisions about job safety and health issues. Each month you will receive a summary of safety and health highlights including news and announcements, background information and other resource material. Often you'll find links to our website and others related to safety and health that provide additional information on particular items. To subscribe, click on OSHA's website at www.osha.gov.
President Bush has requested a $437 million budget for OSHA in FY03, including a $2.75 million increase in compliance assistance, outreach, and training activities. While the request reflects an approximate 1.3% general decrease from the current appropriation, OSHA Administrator John Henshaw reminds all that we're in the midst of a wartime budget that still affirms the important role OSHA plays in homeland security. "Workplace safety and health is a crucial component of homeland security," he says, "and we will continue to focus much of our efforts to ensure workers and employers have the tools and guidance they need to be safe at their jobs."
The budget proposal includes $60.3 million for expanded outreach activities and compliance assistance, and $4 million for a new training grant program to replace the current Susan Harwood grants program. A total of $161.1 million is earmarked for enforcement and anticipates the agency will conduct 1,300 more inspections in FY03 than this year.
In 2000, on-the-job injury and illness rates of U.S. workers declined to a historic low of 6.1 cases per 100 workers. Injury and illness rates in more dangerous occupations such as construction and manufacturing also continued to decline. Last year, 5.7 million Americans experienced an injury or illness at work -- about the same as in 1999 -- but the number of hours worked rose, resulting in a rate decline. In announcing the good news, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao said, "We must keep improving upon this positive trend in workplace injury and illness rates, through proper enforcement of health and safety standards, as well as OSHA's model compliance assistance program."
OSHA recently announced its endorsement for a voluntary product stewardship program designed to reduce workplace exposures to refractory ceramic fiber (RCF) products. The five-year program was designed by
the Refractory Ceramic Fiber Coalition to help protect employees involved in the manufacture, handling, installation and removal of products containing the fibers, used mainly for high temperature insulation applications. The program is similar to one adopted three years ago by three industry associations, and also endorsed by OSHA, to protect employees involved in the manufacture and handling of fiberglass-containing products.
"These programs are a classic example of how workers benefit when OSHA and employers and associations work together in a collaborative effort," said Henshaw. Henshaw explained that OSHA will continue to monitor and track RCF exposures and conduct inspections, but will also work with the participants of the program towards continuous improvement in the safe handling of RCF products.
More than 10 million Americans speak little or no English. To help assure the safety and health of immigrant workers, OSHA is expanding its outreach, especially among Hispanics. OSHA is forming alliances with Hispanic leadership and community-based organizations and offering an ever-increasing number of publications and fact sheets in Spanish. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao told the National Association of Hispanic Federal Executives just last month that worker safety in the Hispanic community is a major priority. "I am concerned that Hispanics are more likely than others to be injured on the job," she said. "It's less a question of job skills than language barriers. OSHA is working double time in reaching out to Hispanic workers, especially in construction and other trades."
OSHA will continue to expand ongoing Hispanic outreach projects such as the community-based effort to disseminate safety and health information among immigrants in New York and New Jersey, the CARE program (Construction Accident Reduction Emphasis) in Florida, an alliance with a Latino community group in Georgia to encourage workers to report hazards, safety and health courses and small business training taught in Spanish in the Southwest, and bi-lingual compliance assistance specialists and inspectors available to assist Spanish-speaking workers and employers in several local offices.
In addition, a new Spanish website is helping OSHA reach out to non-English speaking workers and employers. The web page initially is featuring basic documents such as worker and employer rights and responsibilities, resource materials and other information of special interest of Spanish-speaking audiences. Additional information will be added in months to come
As the lead agency for providing occupational safety and health advice to employers and workers in response to terrorist threats, OSHA has served as a technical advisor to both the U.S. Postal Service and the Architect of the Capitol during the recent anthrax crisis. The agency has assisted in designing safety and health plans, sampling for contaminants and evaluating decontamination efforts at postal facilities and the Senate Hart Office Building.
OSHA also has developed an anthrax matrix to assist all employers in assessing risk at their workplaces and guide them in protecting their workers involved in mail handling operations. The agency issued fact sheets and frequently asked questions to aid employers and provided links on its website to sources for more detailed guidance. This information can be accessed on OSHA's website at
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/bioterrorism/anthrax/index.html.
Nearly 3,500 sites received OSHA's December 12 satellite broadcast providing 2.5 hours of training on the agency's new recordkeeping rule that took effect January 1. There were more than 4,500 viewers at the agency's 200+ sites with thousands more tuning in to 900 sites set up by the U.S. Postal Service and 2,000 sites arranged by health care groups. More than 1,000 viewers logged in via the Internet and thousands more have seen the on-demand version of recordkeeping training on OSHA's website during the last weeks of December. Feedback on the broadcast came in 95 percent positive.
Editor: Bill Wright, OSHA Office of Public Affairs, 202-693-1999 |
