Perspectives on Government Regulation

Abstract

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 mandates that no worker should “suffer material impairment of health or functional capacity” from toxic chemicals in the workplace. In hearings on the Act, individuals from a variety of organizations testified that control of exposure to and monitoring of thousands of substances were necessary for workers’ safety. In 1978, one study estimated that occupational exposure to toxic substances accounted for about twenty percent of all cancer cases (Bridbord, Decoufle, Fraumeni, Hoel, Hoover, Rall, Saffiotti, Schneiderman, and Upton, 1978). An industry-commissioned critique of that study by the University of Texas School of Public Health concluded that the estimate was roughly accurate (Stallones and Downs, undated). Yet, only twenty-one chemicals had been completely regulated by 1981. Unions, some academics, and public-interest groups argued persuasively that workers’ health had been traded off for business’s stability and convenience.