Category: Work place safety / environment
Level: State
This article concerns enacted policies that affect individuals and families.
This article discusses the fines imposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on the owner of the West fertilizer plant that exploded last spring.
My views:
I think it's apparent that more oversight by watchdog agencies may have prevented the West fertilized explosion this past spring. The list of serious violations found by OSHA demonstrate that this was a preventable tragedy. Those who argue for less oversight and more lax policy say that private companies can be incentivized to police themselves through fines and fees for not adhering to proper safetly procedures. There are several problems with that. The primary issue is that this technique allows a catastrophe to occur and then fines the company instead of actively preventing the catastrophe in the first place. Some may argue that the company, in an attempt to avoid the fees accrued for noncompliance, will police themselves and enact their own policies to ensure the safety of their workers and the surrounding community. Companies, however, have found that in some cases paying the fee is less expensive and time-consuming than taking steps to avoid the fee.
The West fertilizer plan explosion is an illustrative lesson. We need to invest in preventing these types of hazardous disasters from occurring. I really believe that it would be cost-effective in the long run, especially since the fees imposed on companies can only cover the damage that we can see. The long-term effects of explosions such as these are not yet known. The impacts on the health of the community are not yet seen. As such, there is no way to make the company pay for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment