Safety Tidbit 3.50 - OSHA Consultation Program

Safety Tidbit 3.50 – OSHA Consultation Program

Reference:       OSHA Fact Sheet – The OSHA Consultation Program

Benefits of the OSHA On-site Consultation Program – An Economic Analysis

This is my 150^th Safety Tidbit! Tomorrow I embark on a new chapter of my career, mentoring a new generation of professionals as I begin teaching at IUP. Before, however, I wish to pause and reflect on a well-kept secret (which shouldn’t be a secret at all!). For the past five and half years, I have worked in Pennsylvania’s OSHA Consultation Program. Throughout the Commonwealth, the Program helps small employers keep their workers safe and healthy.

The program is administered by IUP for the state government using well-trained professionals (in PA, all consultants are nationally credentialed as either a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) or a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and many have a graduate degree).  Its mission is to help employers identify hazards in the workplace, providing kinds of assistance available to reduce the hazards, and giving detailed findings with recommendations. They also provide training and education, air sampling or noise dosimetry. In short, the Program gives small businesses peace of mind that they’re protecting their workers enabling each of them to go home to their families at the end of each workday.

A couple things about the Program. It does not issue penalties and it strictly maintains confidentiality of the client. In Pennsylvania, the program performs more than 600 visits to employers each year.

In an OSHA Working Paper dated August 1, 2018, researchers reviewed the economic benefits of the State Consultation program based on a hazards removed approach. The study showed the benefits of the program to the national economy to be $1.55 Billion annually. I ask you to spread the word and let small businesses know they have a resource that truly wants to help them. As this is completely voluntary, employers just need to request their services. (https://www.iup.edu/pa-oshaconsultation/request/)

Hope this was helpful and thank you for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

P.S. If you have an interesting safety or health question please let me know.