Documents Ashford, Nicholas Askounes 9 results

"The interest in so-called voluntary approaches to supplement or replace formal environmental, or occupational health and safety regulation has taken on new importance in both Europe and the United States. These approaches fall into two sharp divisions: industry-initiated codes of good practice focusing on environmental management systems or performance goals, and negotiated agreements between government and individual firms or industry sector trade associations focusing on regulation or compliance. This paper addresses the latter. ... The proposed paper describes and analyses negotiated agreements in the United States in the context of (1) EPA efforts to ensure environmental protection and (2) the Occupational Safety and Health Administration efforts to ensure worker health and safety. These agreements can be described according to the following taxonomy: (a) Negotiated regulation (either preceding formal regulation or as a substitute for formal regulation); (b) Negotiated compliance (implementing regulation or informal agreements) (i) the means and timetable for coming into compliance with emission, effluent, or concentration requirements (ii) negotiation in the context of an enforcement action in which the firm is out of legal compliance (for example, encouraging cleaner production through the leveraging of penalty reductions). The criteria for evaluation include: environmental or health and safety outcomes, effects on stimulating technological change, time for development (time to completion)/implementation (likelihood of court challenge), stakeholder influence (ability of large firms to dominate outcome, environmentalists-industry, or labour-management balance of power),and administrative features."

This book is the report to the Ford Foundation on a 2-year analysis of the technical, legal, political and economic problems of occupational health and safety (OSH) in the USA. After an extensive summary and introduction, contents are: nature and dimensions of OSH problems; 4 chapters devoted to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act, 1970; workmen's compensation; manpower problems in OSH; key activities in the private sector; relevance of Western European and British experience for the USA; agricultural workers; the design of policy. Appendices: text of the Act of 1970; select bibliography on American and foreign experience. Alphabetical index.

"Human monitoring as a supplement to or replacement for environmental monitoring of toxic substances in the workplace has become an increasingly important issue within the last decade, leading to Congressional hearings, governmental studies, and scientific conferences around the world. Just as the purposes for undertaking human monitoring are diverse and sometimes conflicting, so too are the concerns-- medical, legal, and ethical-- such testing has generated.
The authors begin by providing precise characterizations of the types of monitoring now in use and a clear account of the legal basis for OSHA monitoring requirements. They then turn to scientific and technical concerns that have evolved around monitoring, including the frequency and timing of examinations, human variability, and the distinctions that exist between high-risk and sensitive groups. Specific legal and ethical problems of conducting monitoring tests on workers are then covered in full, including the consequences for the worker of medical removal from the workplace, the conflict between human monitoring and personal privacy, access to medical records, and the use and possible misuse of test results.

The volume concludes with policy recommendations for the use of human monitoring, recommendations for the use of human monitoring, recommendations that would achieve the goal of reducing occupational disease and injury while remaining within the bounds of a supportable ethical framework."