OSHA Safety & Health Program Guidelines: Still Time for Comments

摘要

Happy New Year, everyone! Modern workplace occupational health and safety (OH&S) practices have come about as a result of concerted efforts by all stakeholders to find improved ways of protecting workers. For instance, please look closely at the historical painting below (World War II, circa 1942) of a once renowned, skilled British machinist (Ruby Loftus) who is using an industrial lathe to cut and turn a component of a breech-ring component of a Bofors anti-aircraft gun. (For you military history buffs, Bofors guns are still in some arsenals today and were utilized in the Gulf War.) Obviously, the worker in the picture is not wearing eye protection or gloves, and the proximity of her nose so close to the machining process begs for the use of respiratory protection. The noise levels must have been very loud in this obviously busy and crowded wartime shop (probably 24/7 shifts), and I doubt if hearing protection was readily available to machinists of that era. This type of scene would be frowned upon in today's workplace environments and just goes to show how far OH&S has progressed in just a few generations.