OSHA Chief David Michaels ended his plenary session at ASSE's Safety 2012 by telling attendees, "The object isn't to comply. It's to make safety an integral part of safety management." And Michaels believes that much of what OSHA does is designed to help safety pros do just that.
Michaels highlighted some of the agencies current initiatives, including efforts to enact I2P2 and its campaign to prevent fatal falls in construction. In particular, he reported that I2P2 program work in the military and said "if they are good enough for them, they are good enough for us." He also cited a recent study from Science and a study by the Rand Corp. which show that as he says, "OSHA doesn't kill jobs, it saves jobs."
Responding to text and video questions from attendees, Michaels also discussed the current status of the silica standard, cranes and derricks, and the painfully slow rulemaking process--even saying it takes longer than the estimated 8 years to enact a standard. "We know it's a very slow process," he said. "When we visit employers, we often tell them OSHA standards don't represent a level of safety." And we know many employers are looking to ANSI and ACGHI standards for better protection, he added.
Michaels also shared a brief andecdote about Alcoa to point out that when companies embrace a safety culture, they produce a better product, which leads to better competitiveness in today's global marketplace.
A Blog From the American Society of Safety Engineers