Why the failure of OSHA to adopt the 1994 National Secondhand Tobacco Smoke Rule has had a detrimental impact on public health

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Michael Givel, PhD, Political Science, University of Oklahoma, 455 West Lindsey, Room 205, Norman, OK 73019, 405-325-8878, mgivel@ou.edu

Since the early 1980s, advocates of free market approaches to solving societal problems have called for governmental policies of privatization, funding cutbacks, deregulation, and self-regulation of public health and other social programs as the best approach to provide for societal needs. In April 1994, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a proposed non-market oriented governmental rule to eliminate tobacco smoking in workplace rooms arguing secondhand tobacco smoke in workplaces annually killed up to 13,700 nonsmokers. From 1994 to 1997 according to previously secret tobacco industry documents and public newspaper reports, Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights data base, magazine articles, web pages, government documents, court records, journal articles and books, the tobacco industry engaged in a significant mobilization to block the adoption of a final OSHA rule. This effort included an attempt to put OSHA into “overload” with over 110,000 comments on the proposed rule, blocking tobacco industry witnesses from testifying at the OSHA hearing, arguing there was no scientific eveidence linking secondhand tobacco smoke with disease and death, and working with free market federal politicians to significantly undermine OSHA's ability to engage in significant rulemaking to protect the public health. By late 1995, this campaign by the tobacco industry and free market advocates succeeded in blocking OSHA from issuing a final rule prohibiting secondhand tobacco smoke in workplaces. This has meant that secondhand tobacco smoke in workplaces continues to cause excessive illness, death, and lost economic and health costs.

Learning Objectives: Describe the general history and public health importance of OSHA's proposed 1994 national secondhand tobacco smoke workplace rule, Articulate and assess the nature of the federal rulemaking process as it relates to OSHA's proposed 1994 national secondhand tobacco smoke workplace rule, Recognize the significant impact of not adopting the rule on annual cardiovascular and pulmonary deaths in the United States, Discuss the role of the tobacco industry in stopping the rule to be adopted as a final written rule with the force of the law, Assess the influence of pro-market political philosophies in federal U.S. politics from 1994 to the present in stopping the rule to be adopted as a final written rule. At the end of the session, the participant learner will be able to

Discuss the historical context in the formulation of the three key public health requirements of the 1994 proposed OSHA rule to ban secondhand tobacco smoke in workplaces.
List and discuss the history of four key rulemaking stages of the proposed OSHA rule to ban secondhand tobacco smoke in workplaces.
Understand the three key approaches used by the tobacco industry in blocking adoption of proposed OSHA rule to ban secondhand tobacco smoke in workplaces into a final rule.
Articulate the number of pulmonary and cardiovasuclar deaths caused by secondhand tobacco smoke in the workplace in 1994.
Discuss how free market approaches have negatively impacted governmental regulation of secondhand tobacco smoke in workplaces by OSHA.
Articulate the modern day impact on deaths and illnesses due to failing to adopt the proposed OSHA rule to ban secondhand tobacco smoke in workplaces.

Keywords: Tobacco Policy, Regulations

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation

Building Capacity for Tobacco Control: Lessons Learned from the States

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA