Importance of the Occupational Safety and Health Act - Essay Example

Similarly, sometimes electricians forget to apply security measures while doing electric installations in new buildings and suffer deadly electric shocks. Such risks make construction-related occupations dangerous and somewhat unsafe.

Let us now describe some common occupations to know the difference between the levels of danger or risks associated with those occupations and construction-related occupations.

Some of the occupations that are more dangerous than construction-related occupations include criminal justice system-related occupations, fishing, firefighting, farming, and aircraft piloting.

Some of the occupations that are less dangerous than construction-related occupations include information technology-related occupations, writing occupations, artistic occupations, and nursing occupations.

Personal safety is the biggest factor that makes some occupations more dangerous and some occupations less dangerous than building trades. Criminal justice-related occupations, fishing, firefighting, farming, and aircraft pilots are such occupations that involve a high personal safety risk factor. For example, in the criminal justice system, officials have to deal with criminals who sometimes develop personal grudges with some officials, and when they find some opportunity, they take revenge by either killing or injuring the officials who arrested and punished them. The occupations of lawyers and police officers are considered very risky in third-world countries because of the lack of proper law enforcement systems. In building trades, the risk factor is low because of the implementation of injury reduction mechanisms proposed by OSHA. In such occupations, injuries do occur but the ratio is very low as compared to the fatal injuries that criminal justice officials get.

The occupation of airline pilots is also very dangerous as compared to building trades. The reason is that a technical problem in a plane puts in danger the lives of hundreds of people. We can take the example of Air India Express flight # 812, which crashed a couple of years ago and caused 158 fatalities. Such incidents do not occur in the occupation of building trades.

Similarly, in other occupations like farming, firefighting, and fishing, a large number of casualties occur every year due to different reasons. The US Bureau of Labor has reported these occupations more dangerous as compared to the occupation of building trades. The reason is that people involved in these professions do not properly adhere to the guidelines of OSHA regarding safety management because of a lack of awareness. People having the occupations of farming or fishing are usually less educated. Moreover, they do not work with companies that can ensure their safety at work. They work on their own to earn their livings and face hazardous situations at times. On the other hand, construction companies are properly registered companies that adhere to the safety guidelines of OSHA. Therefore, the number of casualties in construction-related occupations is generally less as compared to other dangerous occupations.

However, some occupations such as information technology, writing, and artistic occupations are very safe as compared to building trades. The reason is that there is no personal safety risk involved in these occupations. People having these occupations use their skills and abilities in a very safe work environment. Moreover, they deal with such equipment that cannot produce any harm for them. For example, a computer operator has to work with computer systems that are not dangerous at all. Similarly, artists use their skills to draw paintings and sculptures that are unable to create any sort of health risk for them.

“Falling from great heights, being crushed under heavy equipment, and crashing into a fiery explosion are just a few of the job dangers many workers face daily” (Celeste). To reduce workplace injuries and safety risks in construction-related occupations, as well as in other occupations, congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970. Although the safety and health management systems provided by OSHA have proved to be very effective in dealing with workplace safety issues, they cannot guarantee 100 percent workplace safety for people having non-construction occupations. However, those systems have been able to reduce the number of workplace injuries up to a great extent. In the future, efforts need to be made at the government level to make the most hazardous non-construction occupations safer. The government of America should make it essential for people involved in all registered and unregistered occupations to implement the safety management measures proposed by OSHA.