Joel Hefley: “in the past, I have accused OSHA of being an agency out of control. Today, we have a good example of why that is true.…”

“in the past, I have accused OSHA of being an agency out of control. Today, we have a good example of why that is true. How bad is the ergonomic regulation OSHA is drafting? You do the math. According to the compensation insurance industry, cumulative trauma disorders cost employers approximately $1 billion per year. On the other hand, OSHA's ergonomic regulations will easily be the most expensive they have ever promulgated--more expensive than their blood-born pathogen rule, more expensive than their asbestos standard, even more expensive than their proposed $8 billion indoor air regulation. Still, the regulation might be reasonable if the size of the problem matched the costs. Is that the case? No. Cumulative trauma disorders make up less than 4 percent of all work-related injuries and diseases that resulted in missed work. OK. What about the science? To reduce the cost to employers, will OSHA be able to draft tight regulations which give employers specific guidelines and references. No. Simply put, there is no scientific support for a national ergonomic standard. Everyone agrees that cumulative trauma disorders are a problem, but no one knows where the threshold between safety and injury lies--not medical doctors, not the Center for Disease Control, not even OSHA bureaucrats. But that does not deter OSHA. As in the past, they are determined to plow ahead where no reasonable agency would tread.”