Uploaded September 2017 | Updated September 2026, 8 hours ago
In this short clip from a 30 minute press conference held by OSHA, USDA and EPA on Grain Storage Hazards on December 30, 1977, OSHA’s Public Affairs Officer, Frank Greer, responds to a reporter’s comment that his Agency was responsible for worker safety. Under the 1970 OSHA law, employers have the responsibility to provide a safe workplace. Employers MUST provide their workers with a workplace that does not have serious hazards and must follow all OSHA safety and health standards. Employers must find and correct safety and health problems by eliminate or reduce hazards by making feasible changes in working conditions rather than relying on personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, or earplugs. In 1970, the United States Congress and President Richard Nixon created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a national public health agency dedicated to the basic proposition that no worker should have to choose between their life and their job. Passed with bipartisan support, the creation of OSHA was a historic moment of cooperative national reform. Congress created OSHA to assure safe and healthful conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and providing training, outreach, education and compliance assistance. For more on OSHA, go to the Agency website at osha.gov and see their 2016 booklet, All About OSHA, at osha.gov/Publications/all_about_OSHA.pdf . This is clipped from the video of a joint press conference held by OSHA, USDA and EPA on Grain Storage Hazards on December 30, 1977. Frank Greer was OSHA’s Public Affairs Officer during Eula Bingham’s tenure as Assistant Secretary. In the 1970s, agriculture and food processing industries experienced several combustible dust explosions. A 1977 grain-dust explosion in Westwago, Louisiana, killed 36 workers. It remains the deadliest grain-dust explosion of the modern era. Five days later, another grain-dust explosion in Galveston, Texas, caused the deaths of 9 workers and injured 34 others. As a result of these and other grain-dust explosions in the 1970s, OSHA issued a document entitled "Grain Elevator Industry Hazard Alert," on January 5, 1978 which provided employers, workers, and other officials with information concerning the hazards and safe handling of grain. The video of the entire 30 minute press conference is available on my YouTube channel. It is available at the US National Archive film collection in College Park, Maryland as Press Conference on Grain Elevator Explosions, RG 100-G-86.
In this short clip from a 30 minute press conference held by OSHA, USDA and EPA on Grain Storage Hazards on December 30, 1977, OSHA’s Public Affairs Officer, Frank Greer, responds to a reporter’s comment that his Agency was responsible for worker safety. Under the 1970 OSHA law, employers have the responsibility to provide a safe workplace. Employers MUST provide their workers with a workplace that does not have serious hazards and must follow all OSHA safety and health standards. Employers must find and correct safety and health problems by eliminate or reduce hazards by making feasible changes in working conditions rather than relying on personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, or earplugs. In 1970, the United States Congress and President Richard Nixon created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a national public health agency dedicated to the basic proposition that no worker should have to choose between their life and their job. Passed with bipartisan support, the creation of OSHA was a historic moment of cooperative national reform. Congress created OSHA to assure safe and healthful conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and providing training, outreach, education and compliance assistance. For more on OSHA, go to the Agency website at osha.gov and see their 2016 booklet, All About OSHA, at osha.gov/Publications/all_about_OSHA.pdf . This is clipped from the video of a joint press conference held by OSHA, USDA and EPA on Grain Storage Hazards on December 30, 1977. Frank Greer was OSHA’s Public Affairs Officer during Eula Bingham’s tenure as Assistant Secretary. In the 1970s, agriculture and food processing industries experienced several combustible dust explosions. A 1977 grain-dust explosion in Westwago, Louisiana, killed 36 workers. It remains the deadliest grain-dust explosion of the modern era. Five days later, another grain-dust explosion in Galveston, Texas, caused the deaths of 9 workers and injured 34 others. As a result of these and other grain-dust explosions in the 1970s, OSHA issued a document entitled "Grain Elevator Industry Hazard Alert," on January 5, 1978 which provided employers, workers, and other officials with information concerning the hazards and safe handling of grain. The video of the entire 30 minute press conference is available on my YouTube channel. It is available at the US National Archive film collection in College Park, Maryland as Press Conference on Grain Elevator Explosions, RG 100-G-86.
