| Show OSHA Rules r Threaten Jobs in Small Business WASHINGTON Spokesmen for small and medium sized businesses have called on the Occupational Safety and Health Admin- to change its proposed rules to regulate carcinogens to make fair and less of a threat to the economic health of thousands of small nam a for providing a safe work work environment environment and conducting effective t rational safety and health r pro- t said NAM and its mem- stances known to produce cancer in man should be regu- He K j reasonable well bal- and structured in such a way as to promote safety and health with the least possible economic ana I to I Variations Noted I Since there are wide varia- I between vanous suspect I substances and the way they are used by different companies in different the po- degree of exposure and other factors should be taken into account in tailoring u u regulation for each sub- said In contrast to such sub- said OSHA proposes a system or generic lumping many substances to- gether under the same ig- noting degrees of potency or ex- and treating all industries without any thought to the economic An example of what can hap- p to a small industry faced with compliance with OSHA regulations was presented by Richard president of Gallagher and a member of NAM's Safety and Health compliance with osha's late the handling of 14 suspected carcinogens including a rubber curing agent Used in his After determining that no was in order to comply the me standard bor- tr'S arca ding change Ventilation and make-up Thc amount of S Spent on Compliance efforts might seem small and to the or a large But it is a very large sum of money indeed when viewed in other For Gallagher was an amount equal to net worth in Put another the was an amount greater than our total profits for the previous four o. Pointing out that compliance costs hit harder on small panics than on larger does OSHA seem oblivious to this fact of economic but under the current proposal it has not even seen fit to consider the economic impact on any seg- ment of He must be to have healthy work- not unemployed work- ers Who needs small busi- ness' At latest more than half of all those employed in the United Stales are employed by small |
