Occupational safety and health policies are not just aimed at the prevention of accidents and diseases in the workplace, but cover all aspects of creating a safe environment conducive for good health and productivity for employees. For workers, health and safety in the workplace is of paramount importance, and it's an employer's duty to be sure that unnecessary risks workers are subjected to are minimized to the greatest extent possible.  Generally, occupational health and safety polices of the federal and state governments aim to promote physical, emotional and mental well being of workers, promotion of a work environment that is safe and adapted to their needs, and prevention of injuries and diseases that occur in the workplace.

Unsafe Working Conditions

Unsafe or hazardous working conditions can be found both inside and outside the workplace.  Workers that face the greatest risk of danger are miners, construction workers, refinery workers and employees in the logging and forestry industries.  Although government regulations have dramatically reduced the rate of industrial accidents over the past century, injury-causing accidents continue to occur at levels that are unacceptable.  The consequences of these injuries and illnesses extract a toll on worker heath and safety, besides impacting their families, and the quality of their lives.

In 2007, close to 4 million occupational injuries and illnesses were reported in the American workplace, and out of these, 50 percent were serious cases that required days away from work.  Nearly 95 percent of these 4 million cases were related to accidents in the workplace, and the remaining were for illnesses due to occupational hazards.

Occupational Safety

The causes of accidents in the workplace may not always be easily identifiable.  While defective machinery, improper safeguards and lack of supervision can be contributing factors in an accident, sometimes the cause may lie in the failure of the employer to train an employee to operate or handle the machine safely.  Employers are not only required to equip the work environment with safeguards and well maintained machinery, but also to ensure that workers are properly trained to safely perform their duties, and in the correct ways of handling the machinery.

Occupational Illness & Disease

Illnesses arising from occupational hazards are harder to detect than injuries. That's because diseases may take a long time to manifest symptoms, and it may take an even longer time to trace a disease to a direct cause in the workplace.  The goods-producing industry accounts for approximately 40 percent of occupational illnesses in the country.

OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration aims to work with employers and employees to create a safe working environment that promotes worker health and safety.  Since the agency began functioning in 1971, the rate of industrial and workplace accidents and illnesses has reduced dramatically.  Judging from the fact that 4 million workers continue to be injured or fall ill in the performance of their duties, more work still needs to be done to bring down the number of preventable workplace accidents and occupational illnesses that occur each year.