Cooperative Regulatory Enforcement and the Politics of Administrative Effectiveness

1991 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Scholz
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
State Level ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Regulatory Enforcement ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Administrative Effectiveness ◽  
Group Politics ◽  
The Impact

Even when political interests control bureaucratic outputs, the control of policy outcomes is complicated by trade-offs between controllable versus effective implementation strategies. I use a nested game framework to explain why a cooperative strategy can increase enforcement effectiveness in the narrow administrative game and why principal-agent control problems and collective action problems associated with the strategy lead policy beneficiaries to oppose the effective strategy in the broader political games. Analyses of state-level Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforcement provide evidence that cooperation does enhance the impact of enforcement in reducing workplace injury rates but that policy beneficiaries oppose and sabotage cooperation. The interactions between administrative effectiveness and interest group politics in this and other implementation situations require that both be analyzed simultaneously, and the nested game framework can provide a systematic approach to such analyses.

Regulatory Enforcement in a Federalist System

1986 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 1249-1270 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Scholz ◽  
Feng Heng Wei
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
State Level ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Regulatory Enforcement ◽  
Statutory Authority ◽  
Task Differences ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Task Conditions ◽  
And Task

Federal agencies integrate federal, state, and local political demands at the operational level of service delivery. They balance conflicting political demands and task requirements as they attempt to develop feasible enforcement routines capable of attracting support and resources in multiple arenas without undermining central support for budgetary resources and statutory authority. Our regression analysis of annual enforcement data from 1976 through 1983 for all 50 states indicates that even the relatively isolated enforcement procedures of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration respond significantly to state-level political and task differences. Enforcement activities responded most consistently to daily enforcement contacts with interest groups. State differences in task conditions—particularly workplace accident and unemployment rates—also elicited instrumental responses, while differences in the party and ideology of elected officials elicited more symbolic actions. State agencies, with their smaller size and greater flexibility, were even more responsive than the federal agency to political and task differences. This integrative function of bureaucracy needs further attention in democratic theory.

scholarly journals COVID-19: US federal accountability for entry, spread, and inequities—lessons for the future

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 995-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
William P. Hanage ◽  
Christian Testa ◽  
Jarvis T. Chen ◽  
Letitia Davis ◽  
Elise Pechter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Worldwide Population ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The Us ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Community Transmission ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe United States (US) has been among those nations most severely affected by the first—and subsequent—phases of the pandemic of COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. With only 4% of the worldwide population, the US has seen about 22% of COVID-19 deaths. Despite formidable advantages in resources and expertise, presently the per capita mortality rate is over 585/million, respectively 2.4 and 5 times higher compared to Canada and Germany. As we enter Fall 2020, the US is enduring ongoing outbreaks across large regions of the country. Moreover, within the US, an early and persistent feature of the pandemic has been the disproportionate impact on populations already made vulnerable by racism and dangerous jobs, inadequate wages, and unaffordable housing, and this is true for both the headline public health threat and the additional disastrous economic impacts. In this article we assess the impact of missteps by the Federal Government in three specific areas: the introduction of the virus to the US and the establishment of community transmission; the lack of national COVID-19 workplace standards and enforcement, and lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for workplaces as represented by complaints to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) which we find are correlated with deaths 16 days later (ρ = 0.83); and the total excess deaths in 2020 to date already total more than 230,000, while COVID-19 mortality rates exhibit severe—and rising—inequities in race/ethnicity, including among working age adults.

Human Factors Implications of Osha's Impact on Small Manufacturers

1982 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 493-497
Author(s):  
James W. Knight ◽  
Douglas J. Harju
Keyword(s):  
Human Factors ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Health Performance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Small Manufacturers

Small manufacturers often lack the necessary expertise to solve their occupational safety and health problems. A recent study examined the impact of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration upon small manufacturers. The findings of that study are reported here regarding their human factors implications. Recommendations to improve occupational safety and health performance are made.

scholarly journals Analysis of COVID-19 Concerns Raised by the Construction Workforce and Development of Mitigation Practices

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Makram Bou Hatoum ◽  
Ali Faisal ◽  
Hala Nassereddine ◽  
Hadi Sarvari
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Health Trends ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The Impact

The coronavirus outbreak has created a global health crisis that has disrupted all industries, including the construction industry. Following the onset of the pandemic, construction workers faced and continue to face unprecedented safety and health challenges. Therefore, construction employers established new safety precautions to protect the health and safety of the workforce and minimize the spread of the virus. The new precautions followed the advice and guidelines offered by different health and safety agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). With construction projects resuming operations, it becomes important to analyze the coronavirus-related health and safety concerns of construction workforce and understand how the new safety procedures can assist on jobsites. Existing studies mostly focused on interviews and surveys with construction companies to understand the impact on project performance and supply chains. However, no study has yet to analyze the United States construction workforce. This paper fills the gap by providing a qualitative descriptive analysis of the COVID-19 complaints data gathered by OSHA from construction jobsites. Information gathered by OSHA includes the jobsite location, the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) of the construction company, the type of the complaint (i.e., formal or non-formal), and a thorough description of the complaint. N-grams were employed to analyze the complaints, detect trends, and compile a list of the most frequent concerns reported by the workforce. The analysis of the complaints data identifies safety practices that were most violated, highlights major safety and health concerns for construction workers, and pinpoints geographical areas that have seen a surge in complaints. The study also synthesized the existing research corpus and compiled a list of 100 best practices that construction employers can adopt to mitigate the concerns of the workforce. The findings of this study provide insights into the safety and health trends on construction sites, lay the foundation for future work of academicians and practitioners to address the concerns faced by construction workers, and serve as lessons learned for the industry in the case of any future pandemic.

scholarly journals Impact on the fitness of N95 masks with extended use/limited reuse and dry heat decontamination

2021 ◽  
pp. jim-2021-001908
Author(s):  
Mengyi Zha ◽  
Jude Alsarraj ◽  
Brandon Bunch ◽  
David Venzon
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Safety Data ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Human Subject Research ◽  
Dry Heat ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
The Impact

Substandard use of N95 masks, sometimes combined with dry heat decontamination, lacks safety data. We evaluated the impact of these practices on the fitness of N95 masks. This is a non-human subject research conducted from July to October 2020. 155 masks were used by 12 healthcare workers during 10-hour shifts. Masks were collected at the end of the shift and if the number of donnings/doffings was less than five (‘modified extended use’, ME) or whenever this number reached five (‘limited reuse’, LR), per the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Masks that passed an Occupational Safety and Health Administration qualitative fit test underwent a cycle (30 min, 75°C) of dry heat decontamination. After use, 84% (95% CI 77% to 90%) of the masks fit the users, 85% (95% CI 73% to 93%) in ME and 83% (95% CI 73% to 90%) in LR. After dry heat, 86% of the fitted masks (95% CI 78% to 91%) still fit, 93% (95% CI 80% to 98%) in ME and 82% (95% CI 70% to 89%) in LR. If a fit test was not done before decontamination, 72% (95% CI 64% to 79%) of the masks would fit, 79% (95% CI 66% to 88%) in ME and 68% (95% CI 57% to 77%) in LR. Common substandard use preserves fitness of N95 masks up to 85%. One cycle of dry heat decontamination preserves fitness of N95 masks up to 93% when donned/doffed less than five times and fitness is ensured before decontamination. If a fit test is not performed beforehand, dry heat decontamination cannot preserve the fitness of used N95 masks above 80%.

scholarly journals Nature of Occupational Incidents among Electrical Contractors

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pouya Gholizadeh ◽  
Behzad Esmaeili
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Statistical Probability ◽  
Construction Accidents ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Electrical Contractors ◽  
Fatal Injuries

Electrical contractors have experienced a rise in occupational fatalities in recent years. In 2017, electrical contractors also had the second highest number of non-fatal injuries among specialty trade contractors. Identifying statistically significant dependencies between these catastrophic outcomes and a handful of well-defined contributing factors in construction accidents offers a first step in mitigating the risks of construction accidents in this trade. Therefore, this study used methodologies of descriptive and quantitative statistics to identify the contributing factors most affecting occupational accident outcomes among electrical contracting enterprises, given an accident occurred. Accident reports were collected from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s fatality and catastrophe database. To ensure the reliability of the data, the team manually codified more than 600 incidents through a comprehensive content analysis using injury-classification standards. Inclusive of both fatal and non-fatal injuries, the results showed that most accidents happened in nonresidential buildings, new construction, and small projects (i.e., $50,000 or less). The main source of injuries manifested in parts and materials (46%), followed by tools, instruments, and equipment (19%), and structure and surfaces (16%). The most frequent types of injuries were fractures (31%), electrocutions (27%), and electrical burns (14%); the main injured body parts were upper extremities (25%), head (23%), and body system (18%). Among non-fatal cases, falls (37%), exposure to electricity (36%), and contact with objects (19%) caused most injuries; among fatal cases, exposure to electricity was the leading cause of death (50%), followed by falls (28%) and contact with objects (19%). The analysis also investigated the impact of several accident factors on the degree of injuries and found significant effects from such factors such as project type, source of injury, cause of injuries, injured part of body, nature of injury, and event type. In other words, the statistical probability of a fatal accident—given an accident occurrence—changes significantly based on the degree of these factors. Beyond these outcomes, the described content-analysis methodology contributes to the accident-analysis body of knowledge by providing a framework for codifying data from accident reports to facilitate future analysis and modeling attempts (e.g., developing logistic regression models) to subsequently mitigate more injuries in other fields.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Pandemic’s precautionary measures had hit the reset button of the quality of life at different aspects

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (08) ◽  
pp. 812-816
Author(s):  
Huda H Alsayedahmed
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Protective Measures ◽  
Precautionary Measures ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Impact

COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan-China during the last quarter in 2019 and caused an infectious respiratory disease pandemic. The strategy of “Attack and Defend” was attempted to mitigate COVID-19 crisis worldwide. A list of precautionary measures were set by healthcare professional experts to protect public from infection, social physical distancing measures being the most efficient. On the other hand, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has established protective guidelines for healthcare workers to guarantee a healthy workplace and safe environment. The physical distancing measures have obviously reshaped the relationship between family members leading to better quality of family life. Meanwhile, travel suspension also led to slightly higher health standards with less air pollution, lower traffic induced stress levels and subsequently a greener footprint. Herein, we intend to highlight the impact of COVID-19 pandemic protective measures on family connections, as well as on environmental health. Moreover, we aimed at pointing out the effect on Saudi Arabian cultural and humanitarian behavior in dealing with the pandemic under the governance care of the custodian of the two holy mosques; King Salman Al-Saud. In fact, a combination of restrictive and protective measures is the most efficient to curb COVID-19 spread. In addition to improving the quality of social life, this pandemic revealed a healthier climate, which will certainly be visible on a large scale. Certainly, all together with solidarity we will be able to restrain COVID-19 pandemic and have a better quality of life.

Can Analysis of Policy Decisions Spur Participation?

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Potential Synergy ◽  
Unique Method ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Analytical Requirements

Agencies are frequently required to analyze the impact of their decisions, particularly in the context of regulatory policy. Advocates of analysis have championed the transparency benefit of these requirements. But there has been very little attention paid to the effectiveness of analysis in spurring useful participation in practice. This article examines how analysis can hinder and motivate public participation. Interviews were conducted with 48 analysts (including economists, risk assessors, and environmental impact assessors). In addition I conducted a case study on a unique method for using analysis in partnership with participation, the use of panels of small business owners to evaluate a regulatory proposal by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). I find that participation in agency decisions as a result of traditional analytical requirements has been very uneven. Examples of success exist but so do cases where participation may be deterred by the density and complexity of analysis as well as cases of massive letter-writing campaigns ignored by decision-makers. I recommend a move toward simpler and earlier analysis, and the use of panels (such as described in the case study) to better take advantage of the potential synergy between analysis and participation.

Field Evaluation of the Ultrasonic Personal Aerosol Sampler (UPAS) for Respirable Dust Exposure in a Taconite Mine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nima Afshar-Mohajer ◽  
Rebecca Foos ◽  
Gurumurthy Ramachandran ◽  
John Volckens
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Method ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Respirable Dust ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Dust Exposure ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Exposure to respirable dust (RD; the mass fraction of inhaled particles that penetrate to the unciliated airways) is a major health concern in a variety of workplaces. While the estimation of personal exposure is an essential step in protecting worker health from aerosol hazards, the traditional method for assessing personal exposure to RD, suggested by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH method 0600), requires equipment that is heavy, bulky, noisy, and has the need of frequent calibration. The ultrasonic personal aerosol sampler (UPAS) is a new personal sampling technology designed to address some of these drawbacks associated with traditional sampling methods. In this study, we field tested and evaluated the performance of the UPAS for assessing worker exposure to RD in a taconite mine. Mineworkers (n = 39) from various job categories were recruited to wear both UPAS and NIOSH 0600 samplers on a work vest to estimate time-weighted exposure to RD. A strong linear relationship was observed (NIOSH method 0600 = 1.06 (UPAS) −9.22 µg m–3, r2 of 0.72, and Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.854). None of the workers were exposed to a RD concentration above the Occupational Safety and Health Administration permissible exposure limit (5 mg m–3). A Bland–Altman analysis revealed that 72% of the valid UPAS samples agreed within ±25% of the traditional method mean. The impact of job category on the correlation of the methods was not statistically significant. This work suggests that the UPAS may present a viable alternative for assessing personal exposure to RD in the workplace.

scholarly journals THE EFFECT OF SHIFT TIME AND WORK SCHEDULE ON INJURIES IN THE INDUSTRIAL WORKPLACE

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Prall ◽  
Michael Ross
Keyword(s):  
Retrospective Analysis ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Physical Therapist ◽  
Occupational Injuries ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Work Schedule ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Chi Square Analysis ◽  
The Impact

Background: Musculoskeletal injuries have increased in the past decade and to date, no study has examined an employee work schedule and shift time on injuries. Aims: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact an employees’ shift time and work schedule have on occupational injuries in the industrial workplace. Setting and Design: Retrospective analysis of a large manufacturing company located in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The company employs 551 workers for work on assembly lines, packaging products, dissemination of old material, loading and unloading delivery trucks, and cleaning between two locations. Methods and Materials: Occupational injuries were gathered from analysis of the company’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration 300 Injury and Illness Log from 2016 to 2020. A retrospective analysis of injured employees (N = 143) over a five-year period from 2016-2020. Statistical Analysis: A chi-square analysis was used to analysis how work shift and work schedule impacted injuries (p < 0.005). Results: The results of the study add significant information to the existing literature on ergonomic interventions in the industrial workplace being delivered by a physical therapist. The results indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship between an employee’s shift time and a non-statistically positive association between an employee’s work schedule on injuries. Researchers found that employees are being injured more in the second half of the workday and later in the employee’s work week. Conclusion: The authors conclude that shift time and work schedule are important factors for reducing injuries in the workplace. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0817/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

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