On April 28, 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Act came into effect in the United States, establishing a new agency—the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the Department of Labor—with a mandate to enforce health and safety standards for America's 60 million workers. As expected, the act has turned out to be a huge headache to enforce and administer, not only because of the enormous costs to industry in altering its technology and work practices to comply with federal standards, but also because the act does not diminish, but raises, discontent about conditions in the workplace. It exposes the sores of industrial practices and labour union conservatism and raises the profound question of what research in occupational health should be directed towards. Wil Lepkowski reports.
