About $1,250 billion -- or 4% of annual worldwide GDP -- is absorbed by the direct and indirect costs of work accidents and occupational diseases, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
“Are we kidding ourselves?” Dr. Tom Krause, founder of BST and now an independent consultant, asked several hundred safety pros at a session at ASSE’s Safety 2013. Kidding about what? Dr. Krause’s point: low OSHA injury rates are deceiving many companies into believing they have better safety performance than is really the case.
Several rides at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim remain closed in the wake of seven safety citations issued against the resort by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA).
When Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis resigned her position, the talk became what might happen to OSHA’s planned Injury/Illness Prevention Standard (I2P2). Secretary Solis had announced this initiative in early 2010. The stated purpose was to require employers to establish a plan that would prevent violations of OSHA standards and that would protect workers from violations of their workplace rights.
