Education for job safety and health

The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHAct), while emphasizing the importance of engineering controls, explicitly recognizes the salience of worker behavior to the prevention of injury and illness by mandating training in job safety and health. Selected research findings from the published literature illustrate that: (1) reliable behavioral procedures that took advantage of existing engineering controls improved the health protection of workers, (2) changes in environmental conditions were effected through changes in worker behavior, and (3) changes in the social environment favorable to the adoption of safe behavior resulted from training and motivation programs. At present individuals who are responsible for workplace health education rarely have appropriate training in this area. Until individuals with special training in health education enter this field it is unlikely that education will achieve its potential as a method for combatting occupational illness and injury.