Abstract The main aim of this paper is to provide a direct discussion on how important occupational health and safety in the organization, like compliance to guidelines to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In this paper it also includes explanation as to why same person have responsibility in dealing with both agencies. Industrial Safety & Health Management Occupational Health and Safety are always a top priority by industries in their day to day operations.
In the United Stated there are private agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that are created to assist industries in attaining the right occupational health and safety standards. For OSHA, its main mission is to assure the health and safety of American workers by strictly enforcing the right standards and processes through proper training, orientation, partnership and continual improvement in the company’s workplace health and safety.
While for EPA, its main aim is to protect the human health as well as protecting the environment. The Health and Safety Manger of a typical industry is the one that is closely working with these two agencies. Before, industries have a hard time separating these roles, where for safety it was assigned to old and well experienced personnel, who really knows the operations. While for the health role, it is mainly assigned to young people whose main duty is to keep workers away from health hazards and sometimes it is mainly the job of the company nurse or physician.
But now, conveniently these two roles has been combined into one position and that is called as, Health and Safety Manager. This position was developed to conveniently managed both roles and work directly with the agencies like OSHA and EPA. (Asfahl, 1998, pp. 2-6). With the position carefully assigned to an individual whose years of experience is definitely a major requirement.
With the years of experience and the actual knowledge on the operation, it is easier for the health and safety manager identify and analyze the critical areas where compliance to such requirements is needed. Like doing such functions such as: recordkeeping, accident cause analysis, organizing a committees, etc. With single point of contact, it also results to easier implementation of regulation and control. (Asfahl, 1998, pp. 81-198).
Reference Asfahl, C. R. (1998). Industrial Safety and Health Management 4e. U. S: Prentice Hall.