A survey of New Jersey industrial hygienists and safety engineers: health and safety conditions, practices, and priorities for OSHA reform.

This study reports the results of an analysis of responses from more than 400 New Jersey industrial hygienists and safety engineers to a survey examining a wide range of health and safety conditions and practices. Findings are reported on a number of variables including the types and seriousness of safety and health hazards encountered at the respondents' work sites, perceived improvements in health and safety conditions, compliance with right-to-know requirements, the effectiveness of resources used in correcting hazards, and the barriers encountered in addressing hazardous conditions. The respondents were also asked to rank their priorities regarding 14 proposals for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reform. Opinion questions were scaled to reflect the respondent's sense of the importance of each variable. One finding of particular interest is that worker involvement in health and safety committees was perceived as an "effective" or "very effective" resource by more than one-half of the respondents. Changes in the Occupational Safety and Health Act that would strengthen requirements for worker participation were among the respondents' top priorities for OSHA reform.