Congress first dealt with issues of safety and health in the workplace in 1890, when legislation was passed for safety standards in coal mines. Over the next several decades, more complicated machinery and new chemicals entered the workplace yearly, posing new hazards to workers.
国会第一次处理职业安全与健康的问题是在1890年，当时国会立法通过了煤矿安全标准。在接下来的几十年里，每年都有更复杂的机器和新化学物质进入工作场所，给劳动者带来了新的危害。
By the late 1960s, an estimated 14,000 workers were dying on the job each year, and over 2 million were suffering disabling injuries from work-related accidents. For years business and labor groups wrangled over the need for federal legislation.
到20世纪60年代后期，据估计每年都有一万四千多名工人因工致死，还有超过两百万工人因工受伤或致残。多年来，工商界和劳动团体就联邦立法的需要一直争论不休。
Opinion in Congress was deeply split over what form legislation might take, but in 1970 Congress finally approved the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which would establish theOccupational Safety and Health Agency, or "OSHA." OSHA quickly became one of the federal government's most disliked agencies.
国会内部在确定立法形式上发生了严重分歧，但最终于1970年批准通过职业安全与健康条例，并依法成立了职业安全与健康署，即 OSHA。OSHA 很快就成为联邦政府内部最不受欢迎的部门之一。
Businesses complained that they faced scores of nit-picking rules, high compliance costs, andarbitrary inspections. In response, OSHA scaled back many of its original rules, and focusedits safety inspections on the most dangerous workplaces. Employment in the U.S. has more than doubled since the creation of OSHA, but during the same time period, occupational injury and illness rates declined 40 percent, and the number of workplace fatalities dropped by 60 percent.
企业们抱怨他们要面对大量挑剔的规则，高昂的成本以及****的检查。作为回应，OSHA 缩减了原有规则的数量，将安检力度集中在最危险的工作岗位上。自从 OSHA 成立以来，美国就业人数翻了一番多。与此同时，因工受伤、患病的概率下降了40%，并且因公死亡事件降低了60%。
