Sorry Dr. Michaels (OSHA chief), the safety profession does not agree with your major push for an Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2). The OSHA boss has told audiences it is long past time for requirements mandating that employers find and fix job hazards, and it is his number one standards priority.

According to ISHN’s 27th annual White Paper reader survey, only 34% of safety pros think OSHA should focus on the I2P2 rule in 2011. Perhaps that is because, as Dr. Michaels has said, most companies employing safety professionals on site already have solid safety and health programs.

Safety pros are divided over OSHA’s standards agenda, with no standard getting the backing of the majority of pros. Forty-five percent want to see the agency focus on finalizing hazcom revisions to be consistent with the UN’s globally harmonized system of hazmat labeling and data sheets. Updating the PELs gets the support of 39%. A combustible dust standard is supported by 23%, and an ergo rule gets the back of 22%.

About one in five safety pros (21%) want OSHA to initiate no new standards action at all. In contrast, only 5% of industrial hygienists want no OSHA standards action at all, according to a joint ISHN/American Industrial Hygiene Association survey of AIHA members.

Not surprisingly, an overwhelming 79% of industrial hygienist say OSHA’s number one standards priority should be updating the PELs.