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The article presents a study that examines participation and impacts of Pennsylvania's Certified Safety Committee (CSC) program in work injury rates of insurance firms. The study analyses data of participant firms and performs regression analysis to determine injury rate differences between them and non-participant firms. Result shows that the program effectively reduces rates of firms with good compliance, while revealing large firms and those with higher rates are keen to join the program.

We study the efficacy of public and private food assistance in alleviating food shortages among poor households by jointly considering the effects of all major forms of domestic food assistance-the Food Stamp Program, WIC, and food pantries. The analyses are based on detailed data collected in 1993 from 398 low-income households in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. We examine the effect each of the widely available forms of food assistance has on helping poor households acquire enough resources potentially to meet basic nutritional requirements. Research findings suggest that compared with other forms of food assistance, the receipt of a significant amount in food stamps has a much greater impact on whether a household attains at least the Thrifty Food Plan than the receipt of food from a food pantry or through the WIC program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A prior study indicated that the effect of OSHA inspections on lost workday injuries had declined from 1979 through 1998. This study provides an updated estimate for 1998-2005., Methods: Injury data from the Pennsylvania workers' compensation program were linked with employment data from unemployment compensation records to calculate lost-time rates for single-establishment manufacturing firms with more than 10 employees. These rates were linked to OSHA inspection findings. The RAND Human Subjects Protection Committee determined that this study was exempt from review., Results: Inspections with penalties reduced injuries by an average of 19-24% annually in the 2 years following the inspection. These effects were not found for workplaces with fewer than 20 or more than 250 employees or for inspections without penalties., Conclusions: These findings should be generalizable to the 29 states where federal OSHA directly enforces standards. They suggest that the impact of inspections has increased from the 1990s., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Objective: OSHA's enforcement program is one of the major public efforts to protect American workers. We examine both the scope of injury prevention that inspections can contribute and the types of standards that contribute the most., Methods: We linked Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry files for lost-time injuries and employment to calculate injury rates for 1998-2005 for all single-establishment manufacturing firms. We linked these to OSHA inspection records., Results: Inspections with penalties did affect injury types unrelated to standards as well as those related. We also found again that citations for violations of the standard requiring personal protective equipment had the largest impact on preventing injuries., Impact on Industry: Programs requiring protective equipment use deserve added attention from consultants and inspectors. In addition, some inspections spur managers to undertake safety measures that go beyond compliance with standards., (2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Since 1994, Pennsylvania, like several other states, has provided a 5% discount on workers' compensation insurance premiums for firms with a certified joint labor management safety committee. This study explored the factors affecting program participation and evaluated the effect of this program on work injuries., Methods: Using Pennsylvania unemployment insurance data (1996-2006), workers' compensation data (1998-2005), and the safety committee audit data (1999-2007), we conducted propensity score matching and regression analysis on the program's impact on injury rates., Results: Larger firms, firms with higher injury rates, firms in high risk industries, and firms without labor unions were more likely to join the safety committee program and less likely to drop out of the program. The injury rates of participants did not decline more than the rates for non-participants; however, rates at participant firms with good compliance dropped more than the rates at participant firms with poor compliance., Conclusions: Firm size and prior injury rates are key predictors of program participation. Firms that complied with the requirement to train their safety committee members did experience reductions in injuries, but non-compliance with that and other requirements was so widespread that no overall impact of the program could be detected., (Copyright 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)