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QUALITY CONTROL MARK

FOREWORD

The enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 represents a landmark achievement in safeguarding the health and lives of America's working men and women. Its passage was the culmination of an effort in the 91st Congress to bring significant safety and health protection to the vast majority of American workers through the adoption of not only this act, but also the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act and the Construction Safety Act.

This particular public law can well be said to constitute a safety bill of rights for close to 60 million workers. It has been needed for decades, as the statistics on death and injury in the workplace so thoroughly indicate. The fact that during the period 1960 through 1969 more than 140,000 workers were killed on the job, and nearly 21 million are known to have been injured, is only part of the testimony to the problem.

To the tragedy of industrial accidents must be added the grim history of our failure to heed the occupational health needs of our workers. Not only are occupational diseases which first came to light at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution still undermining the health of workers, but new substances, new processes, and new sources of energy are presenting health problems of ever-increasing complexity.

This background lends emphasis to the need for vigorous enforcement of this present legislation, so that the national neglect which has brought so much pain and suffering to generations of American workers will be a thing of the past.

Enforcement of this law will undoubtedly raise many questions regarding the congressional intent behind its various provisions. To aid those who will be responsible for such enforcement, and the public to which the law's requirements and protections will apply, I have asked the committee staff to compile this legislative history, with the assistance of Mr. Fred E. Strine, of the Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Department of Labor, under whose direction the two indexes were prepared. It is expected that this compilation should also be of considerable benefit to the Congress and, in particular, to the members of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, in their continuing legislative review of this act's administration.

HARRISON A. WILLIAMS, Jr.,

Chairman.

iii

918T CONGRESS 1ST SESSION

S. 2193

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 16, 1969

Mr. WILLIAMS of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. MONDALE, and Mr. YARBOROUGH) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare

A BILL

To authorize the Secretary of Labor to set standards to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women; to assist and encourage States to participate in efforts to assure such working conditions; to provide for research, information, education, and training in the field of occupational safety and health, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 That this Act may be cited as the "Occupational Safety and 4 Health Act of 1969".

VII-O

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