CAl-OSHA - "The current penalty structure is too low to compel companies to take workplace safety as seriously as they should," a federal OSHA spokesman, Michael Wald, wrote to the Review-Journal this week after it inquired about Michaels' remarks. Despite inflation, the agency's penalties have increased only once in the past 40 years, Michaels told a congressional committee in March. David Michaels, head of federal OSHA, recently discussed entertainment safety with reporters (Source LVRJ).
Occupations such as construction, offshore drilling, mining and logging are routinely viewed as dangerous, while risks to entertainment workers are not always well-publicized, Michaels told the media. Most of the public knows that an animal trainer died during a performance at SeaWorld Orlando in February, but fewer people realize Disney World also suffered several work-related fatalities last year.