Economic Benefit of Complying to Industrial Hygiene Program

Economic Benefit of Complying to Safety and Health Regulations

This paper provides a summary of the journal article titled "A Health Impact Assessment of California's Proposed Cap-and-Trade Regulations." (Maxwell, Paul, & Linda, 2012, p e 52). The paper reveals the health benefits that the communities and organizations derive from the application of the cap-and -- trade health regulation in California. The paper further discusses the application of the principle for the economic benefits of different organizations across the state.

Cap-and-Trade Regulations in California

The authors argue that a climate change can have health effects on workers and people, and one of the causes of the climate change is the greenhouse emission that increases exposure to extreme weather conditions and heat, which can consequently lead to the distribution of air pollution, vector-borne disease, exposure to ultraviolet radiations, and increase illness within the work environment. In response the health effects of the climate changes and greenhouse emission within the work environment, the California government promulgates the cap-and-trade regulation to assist community and employers complying with the health regulation in California.

In 2006, the California government passed the Assembly Bill 32 to address the problem of greenhouse emission in the state and reduce the emission to 1990 levels before reaching the year 2020. In collaboration to the Act, the state also passed the AB 32, which was the Global Warming Act to assist in the implementation of the cap-and-trade program as well as other complementary measures to reduce the global warming to "reach the emission reduction goal." (Maxwell, Paul, & Linda, 2012, e 52).

The cap-and-trade program refers to the market-based approach with the goal to control emission in California using different economic incentives. One of the benefits of the cap-and-trade regulation is to control pollution and enhance a broader pollution control.

Maxwell et al. (2012) carry out the evaluation of the California Global Warming Act and the cap-and-trade program to investigate the potential costs and benefits of the regulation to the workers and overall community in California. The authors point out the implementation of the regulation enhances health outcome of workers within the state. The household income and employment rates are closely linked to the level of health rate within the community. It is essential to realize that job security can affect the psychological well-being as well as overall health of people positively. Moreover, a quality health increases the high rate of employment, increases household budgets and enhances insurance status. However, under health insurance or lack of insurance can delay a health outcome. The authors point out that the health and safety regulations in a combination of other factors increase the employment rates in California. While the regulation assists in enhancing job creations in the state, nevertheless, the regulation alone is not enough to general employment growth. A combination of other factors is required to enhance employment growth rate. Maxwell et al. (2012) added that the implementation of the cap-and-trade alone will create nothing less than 6,000 new jobs by the year 2020. Moreover, the program will create more than 200,000 new jobs by 2020 when summing up all jobs across the industries.

In California, "occupational health and safety contribute to variations in workplace-related morbidity and mortality rates between job sectors." (Maxwell, Paul, & Linda, 2012, p e 53). A slight of growth of illness and injuries within job sectors will consequently lead to a decline in the job growth. Thus, a program that is able to reduce the job-related injury can assist in enhancing a job growth with a community. While the authors argue that the potential health benefits derived from the cap-and-trade program are high across the California state, nevertheless, the benefits of the program is still negligible for the low income and vulnerable population in California because many of them do not have the health insurance that can assist them to derive maximum benefits from the program. However, continuing reduction of the total emission to more than 49% will encourage an increase in establishing the more greenhouse reduction site, which will make the vulnerable people in the state to enjoy health benefits.

Application of the Principles to Other Workplaces