AN EXAMINATION OF PROCESS AND OUTCOME DIFFERENCES IN HEALTH AND SAFETY INSPECTIONS CONDUCTED BY STATE AND FEDERAL-AGENCIES

The Occupational Safety and Health Act provides for state jurisdiction over occupational safety and health issues. observers have suggested that state programs have different, and in many instances, more lenien t enforcement standards than the federal program. Ln this study we com pared 4,755 state inspections with 4,590 randomly generated federal in spections. Significant differences were found in both process and outc ome variables between the two inspection types. We discuss the merits of state program enforcement compared to the federal program based on these results. (C) 1997 National Safety Council and Elsevier Science L td.