On April 28, America’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will celebrate four decades of making U.S. workplaces safer. In advance of the big day, OSHA has released a new, interactive timeline outlining the organization’s biggest milestones over the past 40 years.
“Today workplaces in America are far safer than forty years ago,” OSHA Administrator David Michaels noted in a press release issued today. “Our progress gives us hope and confidence that OSHA will continue to make a lasting difference in the lives of our nation's 130 million workers, and their families.”
Wondering when the Vinyl Chloride standard was implemented? How about the safety standards for fall protection? Or shipyard fire protection rules? It’s all in the comprehensive and easy-to-use OSHA timeline (also viewable in flipbook, list and map formats), complete with one-click access to additional information about each milestone and event.
OSHA’s effect on American workplaces since its inception have been phenomenal: Since the organization was created, on-the-job fatality rates dropped from an estimated 14,000 workers killed annually in 1970, to approximately 4,340 in 2009 (in spite of the fact U.S. employment has almost doubled and now includes over 130 million workers at more than 7.2 million worksites).
