There are 18.4 million employees of state and local governments nationwide, many of whom have potentially dangerous jobs, such as firefighters, highway workers, health care workers, and emergency response personnel. Yet surprisingly, none of these people are covered by the federal occupational safety and health law (OSHA) or its standards. These laws and standards apply only to the private sector; states, counties and municipalities are responsible for protecting (or not protecting, as the case may be) their own workers. States Lacking Full Protection for Public Workers Alabama Arkansas Colorado Delaware Washington, D.C. Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Kansas Louisiana Maine Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska New Hampshire North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Dakota Texas West Virgina Wisconsin According to OSHA, about half the states -- 26 to be exact -- have opted to adopt federally approved workplace safety programs, with full inspection and enforcement of OSHA standards, while the other 24 frequently offer very little protection for their 8.39 million employees. According to a 2000 audit by the Department of Labor�s Inspector General, 17 of these 26 states have abysmal programs for protecting public sector workers, including two states -- Alabama and Delaware -- that have no programs at all. Yet the risks to public sector workers are very real. After reviewing the available data, the Inspector General concluded that �public sector workers face the same or even greater overall risk of workplace injury and illness when compared to the private sector.� In the 28 states and territories that track and report such information, 606,900 state and local employees suffered from workplace-related injury or illness in 1999, according to the AFL-CIO. What�s happening in the other states is anybody�s guess. Besides offering little in the way of protection to its workers, these states are not even bothering to collect data on the magnitude of the problem, which makes performance assessment impossible. What should be done about this situation? The Inspector General recommends that �the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) take a more active role in assisting states improve their public sector safety and health programs, and collect more public sector workplace injuries and illness data.� Yet while such leadership is certainly needed, OSHA correctly points out that it has limited legal authority to push these changes, which the Inspector General says should change. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which created OSHA, sets up an odd arrangement with the states. A state, if it chooses, can submit a plan to OSHA to assume complete authority for protecting all workers -- public and private -- within its boundaries. If OSHA approves the plan -- which must be at least as protective as the federal program -- it then ceases all activity (e.g., inspections, enforcement actions) within the state and hands over responsibility. With this new authority, the state receives federal funding for up to 50 percent of the operating costs for its program. States also have the opportunity to cover only their public employees, and receive 50 percent of their operating costs for the public employee program. Currently, 23 states (actually 21 states and two territories) operate complete OSHA-approved plans, covering both private and public sector workers, and three states cover public employees only. OSHA covers private sector employees in the remaining states, but as stated earlier, it has no authority to protect state and local government employees. This leaves millions of workers with few standards ensuring that they have a safe workplace, and no legal recourse if they suffer injury or illness on the job. In the private sector, the federal commitment has made a clear difference. Since OSHA�s formation more than 30 years ago, workplace deaths have been cut in half and occupational injuries have declined by 40 percent. The same commitment should be applied to public sector workers.