Michaels Makes Speech at NIOSH Revealing His Agenda
On December 16th David Michaels the new Director of OSHA gave a speech at the NIOSH “Going Green” workshop. His speech was titled “Making Green Jobs Safe: Integrating Occupational Safety & Health into Green and Sustainability” where he laid out his five principles for OSHA for the Going Green initiative. But clearly these principles are for OSHA as a whole and not just for the “Green” industry.
Briefly these Principles are:
To require that every employer establish a Comprehensive Workplace Safety and Health Program that features management leadership, worker participation, and structure for continual improvement.
Significant movement in the area of chemical safety. Expect to hear a lot this year about REACH (Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals).
Prevention through design. He admitted in his speech he doesn’t really know what this will look like.
Step up OSHA rulemaking and streamline the process.
The last principle Michaels calls “Enhancing the worker’s voice”. However, the majority of the time he spent on this item he talked about inaccurate injury and illness recordkeeping and the Recordkeeping National Emphasis Program.
To read his entire speech you can click here.
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