For some time now I have contended we are, and have been for probably 10-15 years, in the post-OSHA era. Remember Al Gore’s attempt to “reinvent” OSHA to be more “customer friendly”? Specifically I am referring to OSHA standards-setting.

Two summers ago, Wyatt Whitebread drowned in corn at the age of 14. It happened on a hot July morning, while he was working at a grain handling operation in Mount Carroll, Ill. Soon after Whitebread climbed inside a storage bin to help empty it, equipment whirring nearby created a downward force, essentially turning the corn beneath the boy’s feet into quicksand.