U.S Delegates Walk Out Of Montreal Climate Talks

It's all too easy to come out against the Americans. Why isn't anyone talking about the fact that the United States has reduced their emissions by somewhere in the range of 11-15% while our lovely small minded country has increased its emissions by 24&? This in spite of the fact that according to the 1993 Red Book the Liberal Party of Canada would reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by 20%.

I guess we can throw that promise out with other promises to eliminate the GST, replace the Sea Kings, and a host of other promises that the Liberals are still promising 12 years later!

Canada has no business complaining about the Americans when compared to our own environmental record. George W. Bush has done more for climate change than the Liberal Party has for Canada. Do you all realise how pathetic that sounds? But go ahead and vote Liberal again.

That's true, but only to a certain extent. Much of canada's increase in emissions has come from increased energy production which is sold to the US. The US really doesn't MAKE things anymore, they just import them. However, there has been some issue about the mechanisms used to monitor and report environmental levels. Certainly SOME of the states have cut back on auto pollution, but some have gotten worse.

However, if the above were TRUE, then there would be no reason for the US to not support mandatory reductions, in fact it would be PUSHING them, since they already meet them and Canada doesn't.

Here's where conjecture must come into it and I have no real knowledge, however, I can surmise a couple of scenarios. First, that the US doesn't want to show that it will support international 'laws' or regulations on ANYTHING it does. This is for obvious political reasons at home.

However, there could also be the point that people forget-and that's that these guys who run multinationals don't sit back like us schmucks bickering about nationalism. Most of these guys will sell out their american or canadian workforce at the drop of a hat. So in fact this 'hardline' could be used for CANADA"S benefit. Since we know we are getting worse, the states putting the kibosh on it means that political pressure could push Canada into not submitting to Kyoto, yet Canada certainly can't go it alone. On the other hand, they could be helping Canada by not backing mandatory standards since these standards work to OUR detriment, and most of these guys are VERY active in Canada's energy production. So there is no clear 'national' line anymore when it comes to emissions, we create more emissions to supply THEIR energy, so THEY put the brakes on Kyoto for us.

But do you honestly believe our government will do anything? For the last twelve years it's been a smoke and mirror show when it comes to the enviornment, especially when it comes to reducing emissions. With live in a one party state, where the governing party onle does something if it means keeping them in power or serving their friend's interests. Don't be surprised if Martin promises (again) to reduce emissions by twenty-some-odd present, gets re-elected (again) and we're here (again) twelve years later with nothing having been done. And if we have to suffer through more Rick Mercer adverts about the one ton challenge, I'll be reall pissed off!

The only thing that is good about Kyoto is that it seeks to reduce emissions in the developed world, but it says nothing for the developing world. And as far as granting billion dollar subsidies to countries such as Russia and China in the vague hope that they'll use it to either reduce emissions or switch to clean energy sources is ridiculous. Only a liberal could have come up with that plan; throw massive sums of money at the problem, ease your conscience and hope the problem goes away.

We should go it alone to a certain extent, but work with in the international community to do what we can to motivate other nations to reduce their emissions as well, without procrastinating and wasting billions of dollars in doing so.

Read the Kyoto agreement. It is obvious that non of of you have read it nor do you understand U.S. laws on the environment and how they work.

The point that the U.S. Government didn't agree to is where all new technology must be shared without charge so all can benifit from it. There's no pofit or advantage over the rest.

It's all too easy to come out against the Americans. Why isn't anyone talking about the fact that the United States has reduced their emissions by somewhere in the range of 11-15%<

The USA produces almost 1/4 of the entire worlds emissions. The 11-15% "decrease" is of the increase of emissions they produce. In other words, since 1990 the US has less of an increase in emissions then prior. Wow! 11-15% less of an increase but still the worlds biggest polluter. Next time they will "increase" their pollution by even less. You call that an achievment.

Canada has at least agreed to try and put a lid on it. Bush says the lid is not profitable.

Well,as usual the devil is in the details and we might as well stop the conversation. Do we have a source on EXACTLY what the US emissions are per year, as well as canada's?

It's true I've never read Kyoto, however I took it as factual from the news report that it was the mandatory reductions the US was opposed to. If the preceding post is accurate about its emissions then that makes sense about the US not willing to go along with them. I don't really pay much attention to it anyway, as the above claims all of this will go on with no input from us and we'll simply have to listen to the one tonne challenge crap. I disagree with the above-CANADIANS are trying, CANADA sits on its ass.

<<Read the Kyoto agreement. It is obvious that non of of you have read it nor do you understand U.S. laws on the environment and how they work. The point that the U.S. ...didn't agree to is where all new technology must be shared without charge so all can benifit from it. There's no pofit or advantage over the rest.>>

Thanks for educating us dummies. Here I thought Kyoto was just a massive attempt at redistribution of income from healthy economies to basket cases. All under the management of un-elected crats at the U.N. Canada won't reach any of the promises we made- but we will buy credits (with cash/profits) to atone for our sins. You think profits are the root of all evil...in fact centrally planned economies that attempt to re-distribute income has been pretty disastrous. You might even say it was "evil". When you stand in line for hours to get a few potatoes and your family is hungry, chances are you don't give a shit about the environment. Google Soviet Union. Check out the environmental decimation that has gone on in China and the Soviet Union when "profits" were scorned and income redistribution was embraced.


Besides why are we still talking about Kyoto. Isn't it done? Don't we have an agreement from the talks in Montreal to have more talks?

Americans too are complaining, as can be found <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2005/12/09/un-walk-out/">here</a>

Your way or the highway. He is right you are a dummy! I can't believe the trash that comes from you idiots.

hmmmm...Let's see now...Canada's greenhouse gas emissions (as a "Kyoto Accordian" member) ROSE (over 24%) over the same period of time since joining the "Kyoto Accordian" while AMERICA's emissions went down...hmmm...and just since BUSH came into office it's gone DOWN EVEN MORE. Get the facts straight at least, oh, "enlightened" "progressive" ones...<br />
<br />
America is but one of MANY of the developed nations opposing the faulty "science" of the "Kyoto Accordian", and are instead actualy taking steps which REDUCE greenhouse gas emissions instead of INCREASE them as Canada and it's compatriots has done. Get over yourselves already (eh). <br />
<br />
Moreso, how about in addition to the negative environmental impact of the INCREASED greenhouse gas emissions of over 24%, we take a look at the mining practices, clear cutting lumber on Crown(and/or the native's)land practices, and disgusting water polluting practices of Canada...or the near anhilation of Pacific Sockeye, Cod, or the ongoing slaughter of baby seals by the millions...many actually skinned alive in front of their very own mothers (imagine watching your own child being skinned alive before your very eyes, and dying a slow agonizing, surreal death at your feet as you are powerless to prevent it at the hands of "enlightened", "progressive" Canadian killers)...there's also the wonderfully close, warm, loving, relationship Canada has with it's number one friend, pal, political idol, human rights idol, and ally, Communist China which does this...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/hsi_europe/eu_looks_to_ban_dog_and_cat_fur.html">http://www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/hsi_europe/eu_looks_to_ban_dog_and_cat_fur.html</a><br />
<br />
be sure and watch the video's on this environment/animal friendly website showing Canada's BEST friends and buddies at work (eh)...

Its good to hear that you have addressed all of your own environmental issues... You folks are real good at complaining about someone else’s back yard as your own falls apart.

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""Ottawa doesn't give a hoot for species at risk


By DAVID SUZUKI

Saturday, December 10, 2005 Page A29Key

Remember the old saying "extinction is forever"? Well, someone should try explaining that to the governments of Canada and British Columbia. They haven't quite figured it out yet. Or if they have, they just don't seem to care.

Canada's few remaining spotted owls are in dire straits. Less than 100 years ago, an estimated 500 mating pairs thrived in southwestern British Columbia's old-growth forests. Today, there are just six pairs left in B.C., along with a handful of singles.

Yet, neither government is willing to do anything to save them. In fact, you could say that it is official policy of these two governments to allow the spotted owl to quietly go extinct in this country.

The situation is a far cry from what was promised when Canada finally and belatedly adopted legislation to protect endangered species -- long after the United States and Mexico had their own laws. While Ottawa trumpeted the new Species at Risk Act as a breakthrough, environmental groups complained that holes in the legislation were big enough to drive a logging truck through.
Turns out they were right -- and the spotted owl will likely be the first victim. Clear-cut logging, sanctioned by the B.C. government, continues in their last remaining habitat, and Ottawa refuses to intervene. The main problem is that Canada's endangered species legislation only requires the federal government to act if the species in question is on federal government land -- which makes up less than 5 per cent of the country. And since spotted owls don't usually nest on military bases or in those anonymous civil servant bunkers in Ottawa, it leaves them -- and most species occupying the other 95 per cent of Canada's vast landscape -- unprotected.

But there is a discretionary provision that gives the federal government power to intervene on provincial land in emergency cases where the province has failed to protect an endangered species. In the case of the spotted owl, the failure is clear. The owl is Canada's most endangered bird. Yet, not only does the B.C. government allow logging in the last of the bird's habitat, it is actively encouraging logging through its Timber Sales Program. And it has slashed funding for its Spotted Owl Recovery Program.

Without immediate intervention, the spotted owl is as good as gone. And it won't be the last species to die out while supposedly under the "protective" wing of Canada's Species at Risk Act. Many of the 500 species in Canada currently listed "at risk" by the science body governing species at risk are critically imperilled. And if the federal government is unwilling to step up for the spotted owl, it sets a depressing precedent for the other 499.

Even the recommendations made by the government's science panel regarding which species to list as threatened or endangered is being challenged. In recent months, the federal government has refused to list northwestern grizzlies, western wolverines, and two highly imperilled populations of sockeye salmon as species at risk -- despite the panel's recommendation. So politicians are not only deciding which species are worth saving, but which species are actually endangered in the first place. This distortion of science is something more akin to what would be expected of the Bush administration, not the Canadian government.

Before the Species at Risk Act was adopted, I was asked by a reporter whether I thought the legislation would make a difference. I replied that it had potential, but only if politicians heeded the science and were willing to take action. So far, they haven't done either, and the spotted owl could soon be history because of it.

David Suzuki is chairman of the David Suzuki Foundation.""

<<Americans too are complaining, as can be found here>>

I'm not surprised the censors rated that post as "good".


Martin was just gaining political points. Of course we know (e.g. buying Belinda) Martin will do anything to keep power. The people from that site seemed concerned about "worker's rights", perhaps they should have looked up subsidies to Canada Steamship Lines, before embracing the crass politics of Martin's oppertunistic Montreal speech. They might be encouraged to look up adscam too - then they will learn about Martin's view on a collective conscience.

OSHA at 30: Three Decades of Progress in Occupational
Safety and Health

[The following article has been condensed and reproduced from the Spring 2001 issue of JSHQ
Magazine]


The late '60s was a turbulent time in America. The nation faced serious
concerns both abroad and at home. Civil rights, women's rights, Vietnam, and the
environment all demanded the country's attention.

At the same time, occupational injuries and illnesses were increasing in both number and
severity. Disabling injuries increased 20 percent during the decade, and 14,000 workers
were dying on the job each year. In pressing for prompt passage of workplace safety and
health legislation, New Jersey Senator Harrison A. Williams Jr. said, "The knowledge that
the industrial accident situation is deteriorating, rather than improving, underscores the
need for action now." He called attention to the need to protect workers against such
hazards as noise, cotton dust, and asbestos, all now covered by OSHA standards.

In the House, Representative William A. Steiger worked for passage of a bill. "In the last
25 years, more than 400,000 Americans were killed by work-related accidents and
disease, and close to 50 million more suffered disabling injuries on the job," he pointed out
during the debate. "Not only has this resulted in incalculable pain and suffering for workers
and their families, but such injuries have cost billions of dollars in lost wages and
production."

On December 29, 1970, President Richard M. Nixon signed The Occupational Safety and
Health Act of 1970, also known as the Williams-Steiger Act in honor of the two men who
pressed so hard for its passage.

The Act established three permanent agencies:

the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) within the Labor
Department to set and enforce workplace safety and health standards;
the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in what was then
the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to conduct research on
occupational safety and health; and
the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), an independent
agency to adjudicate enforcement actions challenged by employers.

Known initially as "the safety bill of rights," the OSH Act charged OSHA with assuring safe
and healthful conditions for working men and women. From its earliest days, OSHA was a
small agency with a big mission. When the agency opened for business in April 1971,
OSHA covered 56 million workers at 3.5 million workplaces. Today, 105 million
private-sector workers and employers at 6.9 million sites look to OSHA for guidance on
workplace safety and health issues.

OSHA was created because of public outcry against rising injury and death rates on the
job. Through the years the agency has focused its resources where they can have the
greatest impact in reducing injuries, illnesses, and deaths in the workplace.

Over the past three decades, agency strategies have evolved in keeping with events and
needs of the times. In response to tragedies, OSHA established a standard to prevent
grain elevator explosions and published a process safety management standard to
forestall chemical catastrophes caused by inadequate planning and safety systems. OSHA
has also focused on emerging health issues such as bloodborne pathogens and
musculoskeletal disorders.

OSHA's enforcement strategy has evolved from initially targeting a few problem industries
to zeroing in on high-hazard industries and more recently, pinpointing specific sites with
high injury rates. Education and outreach have played important roles in dealing with
virtually every safety or health issue.

In the beginning...

OSHA's first task was to assemble a staff and, following its congressional mandate, to
adopt federal standards and voluntary consensus standards in place at organizations such
as the American National Standards Institute, the National Fire Protection Administration,
and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. Congress gave OSHA
2 years to put an initial base of standards in place by adopting these widely recognized
and accepted standards. Other standards were to be issued through notice and comment
rulemaking.

OSHA published its first consensus standards on May 29, 1971. Some of those standards,
including permissible exposure limits for more than 400 toxic substances, remain in effect
today. Others have been updated or expanded through public rulemaking, dropped as
unnecessary or overly specific, or amended to clarify their intent.

OSHA's first original standard limited worker exposure to asbestos, a proven carcinogen.
Standards for a group of carcinogens, vinyl chloride, coke oven emissions, cotton dust,
lead, benzene, dibromochloropropane, arsenic, acrylonitrile, and hearing conservation
followed. Early standards responded to health issues well known to the occupational
safety and health community.

During this period, OSHA employed several enforcement strategies. Initially the agency
emphasized voluntary compliance with inspections dedicated to catastrophic accidents
and the most dangerous and unhealthful workplaces. Later, the agency adopted a "get
tough" stance that evolved to a more targeted approach based on significant hazards.
OSHA further refined its inspection targeting system in the late 1970s to focus 95 percent
of health inspections on industries with the most serious problems. The agency also
established special emphasis programs focused on foundries and grain elevators.

Congress recognized when debating safety and health legislation that several states
already were operating effective occupational safety and health programs. The law,
therefore, provided an option for states that wanted to run their own OSHA programs to
apply to OSHA to do so. States could receive up to 50-percent funding from OSHA for
their programs once they received OSHA's preliminary approval. Participating states had
to adopt a program comparable to the federal one, with standards at least as effective as
federal standards. Additionally, states running their own programs were required to cover
state and local government employees.

OSHA approved the first state plans, for South Carolina, Montana, and Oregon, in late
1972. Today, 24 states and 2 territories now operate programs covering private-sector
and state and local government employees. Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York have
state plans that cover public employees only.

States with their own OSHA programs conduct inspections to enforce health and safety
standards and provide occupational safety and health training and education. In addition,
they provide free onsite consultation to help employers identify and correct workplace
hazards.

Early on, OSHA established its own Training Institute in the Chicago area to instruct its
inspectors and provide limited training to employers and employees. During the mid-1970s,
OSHA expanded its expertise in occupational health both through increased training and
hiring of industrial hygienists to address workplace health issues.

To encourage voluntary compliance and assist businesses, particularly small businesses,
OSHA established free onsite consultation programs, delivered through state authorities,
in 1975. The agency took its outreach efforts a step further in 1978 with its New
Directions grants program. The program provided seed money to other organizations to
develop and offer safety and health training to employers and employees.

Midstream

In the 1980s, OSHA began to focus on minimizing regulatory burdens. The agency relied
more on computers to track its activities and provide accountability. Its goal was to
provide a balanced mix of enforcement, education and training, standard-setting, and
consultation activities.

Major new health standards introduced during OSHA's second decade included
requirements to provide employees access to medical and exposure records maintained by
their employers; hazard communication; and more stringent requirements for asbestos,
ethylene oxide, formaldehyde, and benzene. Safety standards covered a wide range of
issues such as updated fire protection and electrical safety, field sanitation in agriculture,
grain handling, hazardous waste operations and emergency response, and lockout/tagout
of hazardous energy sources.

In the early 1980s, OSHA worked to refine its inspection targeting system to zero in on
the most hazardous companies within the most hazardous industries. On arrival at a
workplace, OSHA inspectors would review an em-ployer's injury records. Employers with
injury rates at or below average were exempted from inspection. In 1986, OSHA adopted
a policy of imposing instance-by-instance penalties on companies with egregious
violations, significantly raising penalties for companies with many willful violations.

OSHA expanded its voluntary compliance efforts in several important ways during the
1980s. Free consultations increased, and the program included, for the first time, a
1-year inspection exemption for employers who participated in a comprehensive
consultation visit. In 1982, the agency established the Voluntary Protection Programs to
recognize worksites with exemplary safety and health programs. Drawing on its experience
with VPP sites, OSHA issued voluntary guidelines for safety and health programs in 1989.

During this period, many states running their own OSHA programs received final approval
from the agency verifying that their programs met all the criteria for OSHA to relinquish
concurrent federal enforcement. By the end of the decade, 25 jurisdictions were
operating their own OSHA programs.

Third Decade

In its third decade, OSHA re-examined its goals as part of the overall government
reinvention process, looking for ways to leverage its resources and increase its impact in
reducing workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths. The "New OSHA" focused on reducing
red tape, streamlining standard setting, and inspecting workplaces that most needed help
in protecting employees. The emphasis was on results.

As part of its reinvention effort, the agency reorganized its area offices to provide rapid
response to worker complaints and workplace tragedies as well as to focus on long-term
strategies to lower job-related fatalities, injuries, and illnesses. OSHA instituted a
phone-fax policy to speed the resolution of complaints and focus investigation resources
on the most serious problems.

Many standards published during the 1990s relied on a performance-oriented approach --
setting specific goals for worker safety and health -- but providing flexibility in how those
goals were to be met. Major safety standards included process safety management,
permit-required confined spaces, fall protection in construction, electrical safety-related
work practices, and scaffolds.

OSHA broke new ground in 1991 by introducing a bloodborne pathogens standard to
address biological hazards. During the 1990s, the agency also updated its asbestos,
formaldehyde, methylene chloride, personal protective equipment, and respiratory
protection standards; developed a standard covering lead exposure in construction; and
issued rules to protect laboratory workers exposed to toxic chemicals. OSHA also issued
guidelines for preventing workplace violence in health care and social services work and in
late-night retail establishments.

The agency continued to refine its inspection targeting system to focus on serious
violators, proposing sizable penalties when inspectors found sites where safety and health
problems were most serious. OSHA looked more closely at ergonomics and published
guide-lines for the meatpacking industry. In 1990, Congress increased maximum penalties
for OSHA violations from $1,000 to $7,000 for serious violations and from $10,000 to
$70,000 for willful and repeat violations.

During the mid-1990s, OSHA began collecting data annually from about 80,000 employers
in high-hazard industries to identify sites with high injury and illness rates. In 1999, the
agency adopted the Site Specific Targeting Program, which for the first time directed
inspections to individual workplaces with the worst safety and health records. Injury and
illness rates and fatalities declined significantly during this decade.

Outreach grew as an important component of OSHA's work in the 1990s. To make safety
and health training more easily accessible, in 1992 OSHA made available several of its
training courses at community colleges and universities by selecting sites as OSHA
Training Institute Education Centers. This move resulted in 12 centers offering courses
covering compliance with general safety and health requirements as well as specific topics
such as machine guarding.

The agency launched an Internet webpage in the early 1990s, significantly expanding its
offerings in 1995 to include all regulations, compliance directives, Federal Register
notices and many additional materials as well as links to other safety and health
re-sources. OSHA's interactive expert advisor software, which offers tailor-made guidance
for employers in complying with safety and health standards, was also made available via
the web.

Emphasis on partnerships increased dramatically in the 1990s, and participation in the
agency's premier effort, the Voluntary Protection Programs, increased eight-fold. OSHA
also formed partnerships with companies that wanted to improve their safety and health
records, beginning with the Maine 200 program, which encouraged employers with many
injuries at their sites to find and fix hazards and establish safety and health programs.
This cooperative approach led to the OSHA Strategic Partnership Program -- special local
partnerships emphasizing effective safety and health programs and focusing on specific
hazards or industries. OSHA also created national partnerships with ConAgra Refrigerated
Foods, the Associated General Contractors, and the Associated Building Contractors.

2000 and Beyond

As the new century began, OSHA was broadening its out-reach efforts, with new
compliance assistance specialists slated to join every area office to provide safety
seminars, training, and guidance to employers and employees upon request. The agency
significantly increased its Susan Harwood grant program to enable nonprofit groups to
provide safety and health training for employers and employees.

More and more the agency used its website to provide information to its customers.
Nearly 1.4 million visitors use the site each month for a total of 23 million hits. As many as
300,000 people each month download OSHA's Expert Advisor software, identified as a
finalist in the 2000 Innovations in American Government Awards. The agency recently
added an improved small business page, a partnership page, and a workers' page to its
website to make its information more readily available and easily accessible. The workers'
page enables concerned employees to file complaints online. Along with its counterparts in
the European Union, OSHA set up a joint website on job safety and health issues of
concern to many countries.

OSHA also published a new user-friendly poster, and the agency's 800 number,
prominently displayed on the poster, can now be used to report all complaints, not just
life-threatening situations.

In addition, OSHA explored distance learning options via satellite and computer to provide
broader access to worker safety and health training. The agency sought to address the
challenge of reaching immigrant and temporary workers. Agency staff members also
challenged themselves to improve customer service.

On the regulatory front, OSHA completed work on its ergonomics program standard to
reduce musculoskeletal disorders in general industry, updated its recordkeeping rule, and
issued a steel erection rule based on negotiated rulemaking. OSHA also revised its
bloodborne pathogen standard to clarify the need for employers to consider adopting
safer medical devices to prevent needlesticks.

New rules issued at the end of the Clinton Administration were made part of an overall
review by the incoming Bush Administration in January 2001.

OSHA has come a long way in three decades. The U.S. occupational injury rate is 40
percent lower than when OSHA opened for business in 1971. Deaths from occupational
injuries are at an all-time low -- 60 percent lower than 30 years ago. The agency has
made great progress, but its work is far from done.

As OSHA looks to its fourth decade, it must continue its focus on reducing injuries,
illnesses, and fatalities in traditional industries. At the same time, it must look ahead to
the challenges of the future -- new chemicals and other hazards in the workplace,
growing service sector industries, and changing work force needs. After 30 years, OSHA is
still a small agency with a big mission.

OSHA 30-Year Milestones

Since OSHA's establishment in 1971, workplace fatalities have been cut by 60
percent, and occupational injury and illness rates, by 40 percent. At the same time,
U.S. employment has nearly doubled from 56 million workers at 3.5 million
worksites to 105 million workers at nearly 6.9 million sites. The following
milestones mark the agency's progress over the past 30 years in improving
working environments for America's work force.

December 29, 1970
President Richard M. Nixon signs the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.

May 29, 1971
First standards adopted to provide baseline for safety and health protection in American
workplaces.

January 17, 1972
OSHA Training Institute established to instruct OSHA inspectors and the public.

November-December 1972
First states (South Carolina, Montana, Oregon) approved to run their own OSHA
programs.

May 20, 1975
Free consultation program created. Nearly 400,000 businesses will participate during the
next 25 years.

January 20, 1978
D.C. Court of Appeals decision requires compliance staffing benchmarks for state plans to
be considered "fully effective."

April 12, 1978
New Directions grants program created to promote occupational safety and health training
and education for employers and workers. (Nearly 1 million students will be trained during
the next 22 years.)

June 23, 1978
Cotton dust standard issued to protect 600,000 workers from byssinosis. Cases of "brown
lung" will decline from 12,000 to 700 during the next 22 years.

November 14, 1978
Lead standard published to reduce permissible exposures by three-quarters to protect
835,000 workers from damage to nervous, urinary, and reproductive systems. (The
construction standard is adopted in 1995.)

February 26, 1980
Supreme Court decision on Whirlpool affirms workers' rights to engage in safety and
health-related activities.

May 23, 1980
Medical and exposure records standard finalized to permit worker and OSHA access to
employer-maintained medical and toxic exposure records.

July 2, 1980
Supreme Court decision voids OSHA's benzene standard, establishing the principle that
OSHA standards must address and reduce "significant risks" to workers.

September 12, 1980
Fire protection standard updated and rules established for fire brigades responsible for
putting out nearly 95 percent of worksite fires.

January 16, 1981
Electrical standards updated to simplify compliance and adopt a results-oriented approach
to performance standards.

July 2, 1982
Voluntary Protection Programs created to recognize worksites with outstanding safety
and health programs. Nearly 700 sites currently participate.

November 25, 1983
Hazard communication standard issued to provide information and training and labeling of
toxic materials for manufacturing employers and employees. Other industries are added on
August 24, 1987.

November-December 1984
First "final approvals" granted to state plans (Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Alaska), resulting in
relinquishment of concurrent federal enforcement authority.

April 1, 1986
First instance-by-instance penalties proposed against an employer -- in this case, Union
Carbide's plant in Institute, WV, for egregious violations involving respiratory protection
and injury and illness recordkeeping.

December 31, 1987
Standard on grain handling facilities adopted to protect 155,000 workers at nearly 24,000
grain elevators from the risk of fire and explosion from highly combustible grain dust.

January 26, 1989
Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines published to encourage voluntary
safety and health programs based on Voluntary Protection Program successes.

March 6, 1989
Standard on hazardous waste operations and emergency response issued to protect 1.75
million public and private sector workers exposed to toxic wastes from spills or at
hazardous waste sites.

September 1, 1989
Standard on lockout/tagout of hazardous energy sources issued to protect 39 million
workers from unexpected activation or start up of machines or equipment, preventing 120
deaths and 50,000 injuries each year.

December 6, 1991
Standard on occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens published to prevent more
than 9,000 infections and 200 deaths per year, protecting 5.6 million workers against
AIDS, hepatitis B, and other diseases.

February 24, 1992
Standard on process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals adopted to
reduce fire and explosion risks for 3 million workers at 25,000 workplaces, preventing more
than 250 deaths and more than 1,500 injuries each year.

October 1, 1992
OSHA Training Institute Education Centers created to make the agency's training courses
more widely available to employers, workers, and the public. To date, 12 centers have
trained more than 50,000 students.

January 14, 1993
Standard on confined spaces published to prevent more than 50 deaths and more than
5,000 serious injuries annually for 1.6 million workers who enter confined spaces at
240,000 workplaces each year.

February 1, 1993
Maine 200 program created to promote safety and health programs at companies with
high numbers of injuries and illnesses.

June 27, 1994
First Expert Advisor software, GoCad, issued to help employers comply with OSHA's
cadmium standard.

August 9, 1994
Standard on fall protection in construc-tion revised to save 79 lives and prevent 56,400
injuries each year.

August 10, 1994
Asbestos standard updated to cut permissible exposures in half for nearly 4 million
workers, preventing 42 cancer deaths annually.

September 4, 1995
Formal launch of OSHA's expanded web- page to provide OSHA standards and compliance
assistance via the Internet.

June 6, 1996
Phone-fax complaint-handling policy adopted to speed resolution of complaints of unsafe
or unhealthful working conditions.

August 30, 1996
Scaffold standard published to protect 2.3 million construction workers and prevent 50
deaths and 4,500 injuries annually.

November 9, 1998
OSHA Strategic Partnership Program launched to improve workplace safety and health
through national and local cooperative, voluntary agreements.

April 19, 1999
Site Specific Targeting Program established to focus OSHA resources where most needed
-- on individual worksites with the highest injury and illness rates.

2000
Final rules published covering ergonomics, recordkeeping, steel erection, needle-sticks,
and washed cotton. At press time, the rules were under review by the Bush
Administration.

Voices from the Past

Here's what congressional and presidential leaders were saying three decades ago
as they urged passage of a comprehensive occupational safety and health bill to
protect America's workers.

"Today we are asking our workers to perform far different tasks from those they
performed 5 or 15 or 50 years ago. It is only right that the protection we give them is
also up to date."
President Richard M. Nixon, August 6, 1969

"The chemical and physical hazards which characterize modern industry are not the
problem of a single employer, a single industry, nor a single state jurisdiction. The spread
of industry and the mobility of the workforce combine to make the health and safety of
the worker truly a national concern."
Senator Harrison A. Williams Jr.

"The bill reported herewith is the most important piece of legislation affecting American
workers to be considered by Congress in many years....There is no dispute that a strong
federal occupational health and safety program is necessary if we are to achieve a real
diminution in this industrial carnage. The statistics on occupational injury, disease, and
death show all too clearly that private industry and the States are not doing an adequate
job of insuring health and safety in the workplace."
Senator Jacob Javits

"It is estimated that 55 workers die every day because of the failure to have adequate
occupational health and safety legislation....We have worked long and hard on this
matter. I do not think there is any measure before this body that is anywhere near as
important or which rates a higher priority than this legislation."
Senator Walter Mondale

"In only 4 years time, as many people have died because of their employment as have
been killed in almost a decade of American involvement in Vietnam. Over 2 million workers
are disabled annually through job-related accidents."
Representative Carl D. Perkins

"When 75 out of every 100 teenagers now entering the work force can expect to suffer a
disabling injury sometime in his working career, I believe it is time that we face the goal of
occupational safety and health not as a matter for partisan politics, but as a challenge to
the science and technology of our country."
Representative William S. Broomfield

Americans assume that environmental laws like the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act protect all of us equally. In reality, however, Americans are today governed not by one Clean Water Act or one Clean Air Act, but by 50 sets of environmental laws and programs whose effectiveness is largely determined by those who enforce them. When Congress created the nation’s core environmental protections three decades ago, it sought to carve out a central role for the states in environmental enforcement. The idea was that the federal government, through the EPA, would establish basic pollution standards that would protect citizens across the country and ensure consistent enforcement of those standards. States would have the freedom to enact tougher standards and to pursue innovations that would improve enforcement of the laws.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, a combination of lax oversight by the EPA, the anti-enforcement attitudes of some states, and a chronic shortage of funds for implementation and enforcement of the nation’s environmental laws has led to just the inequities Congress intended to prevent when it established nationwide environmental protections. While a few states have undertaken innovative enforcement strategies to prevent pollution, many others have used the leeway granted to them by EPA to avoid taking tough action against polluters who threaten the environment and the public’s health. It is no wonder, therefore, that 15 years after Congress’ original goal for ending pollution discharges to surface water, more than one quarter of all major facilities still fail to comply with the Clean Water Act and hundreds of facilities continue to violate the Clean Air Act.1<br />
<br />
THE STATE OF<br />
ENVIRONMENTAL ENFORCEMENT<br />
Tony Dutzik<br />
CoPIRG Foundation<br />
October 2002<br />
The Failure of State Governments to Enforce Environmental<br />
Protections and Proposals for Reform<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.environmentcolorado.org/reports/envenfco10_02.pdf">http://www.environmentcolorado.org/reports/envenfco10_02.pdf</a><br />
<br />
<p>---<br>Perception is two thirds of what we perceive reality to be.<br />
<br />
Difficult decisions are a privilege of rank.<br />