Chemical in the Workplace

Thanks to the 1913 founding of the U.S. Department of Labor and its dedication to collecting statistics on worker injury, illness, and death, the public was gaining insight into how dangerous many industries were. In the two years before the OSH Act was signed into law in 1970, 28,000 workers died and two million were injured or left disabled by workplace accidents. Far higher numbers of workers experienced substandard and/or dangerous work conditions.

Evolving workplace hazards continued to make safety an issue in U.S. industries. Despite legislative efforts and a growing awareness of workplace dangers, more needed to be done for the following reasons:

• State-level laws and regulations were piecemeal and left many workplace hazards uncontrolled.
• New hazards required amendments to existing laws.
• Legislatures often failed to provide adequate funds for enforcement.
• Inspectors, who were often political appointees, were not always given the legal right to enter workplaces.
• States with stronger safety laws tended to lose industry to those with less stringent ones.

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