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OSHA charged Cedar Fair with failing to provide fall protection on two roller coasters at Cedar Point, not offering employees vaccinations for Hepatitis B and failing to conduct an adequate employee exposure determination for lifeguards as required by the bloodborne pathogen health standard.
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Hey there, P&C! I figured you were probably watching... :)
And clearly you see my point. The goal shouldn't really be based on complying with what some committee that knows nothing about your industry has decided is the one true path to safety. And I fully agree with the good point about OSHA's existence: that it forces employers to at least think about safety a little bit.
But consider the question: Redesigning fall protection equipment to meet the OSHA requirements was less expensive than an OSHA fine (OSHA prefers it that way, for obvious reasons!) but still expensive. The question is, did it really improve worker safety? I'm not qualified to answer that question. But if it didn't, what was the point of the exercise? And if the result is to make it that much more difficult for the worker to do his job safely, again, what is the point?
But then, what we really want is for a culture that takes safety seriously, that recognizes, identifies, and manages hazards, regardless of what OSHA requires. And I imagine that to the extent that such a culture doesn't exist, that's why we have OSHA.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
The redesign did make the equipment easier to use, and thereby made it more likely that it would be used. The review of the process led to identifying some other areas of concern that were resolved.
I think the overall review of the fall protection program did lead to some decrease in risk for the workers. Some of that may have been due to just raising awareness among staff and management.
My dad worked in construction and he told me when OSHA showed up his boss told them to just lock up their tools and go to lunch. He was told to do this because no matter how safe you try to be OSHA will always find something to fine you on.
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