Thursday, June 26, 2008
Suspended OSHA official says injury reporting is inaccurate
OSHA's process of collecting injury and illness data is inaccurate and misstated, an OSHA official currently on paid administrative leave has alleged.
Testifying June 19 before the House Education and Labor Committee, Bob Whitmore, who directed OSHA's injury and illness recordkeeping system from 1988 until he was placed on leave in July 2007, told the panel the agency willingly accepts underreported and falsified information from employers.
Committee Chairman Rep. George Miller, D-CA, cited a committee report that said only about one-third of all injuries and illnesses are reported to OSHA. He said "growing evidence" suggests data cited by OSHA showing decreased occupational injuries, illnesses and fatalities in recent years is "grossly inaccurate."
Kenneth Rosenman, chief of the division of occupational and environmental medicine at Michigan State University in Lansing, said OSHA's current data-collection system should be expanded to include information from other sources, including employees, workers' compensation records and hospital records. However, Baruch Fellner, an attorney and former Department of Labor official testifying on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, cautioned that melding OSHA recordkeeping with other data-collection systems is mixing "apples and oranges."