Benefit/Cost

Mark Thoma likes OSHA:

Economist's View: I Like OSHA: Today, I got a phone call from the dentist saying that they had somehow managed to get phosphoric acid (37%) into my son's eye. Once I got there, it was painful to even watch. The acid is used to clean and rough up a teeth prior to fillings or other procedures.

It looks like he will be fine - there was an eyewash station in the office and he rushed to it and rinsed the eye right away. According to the eye doctor we saw later, that made a big difference.

So, thank you OSHA for making them put the eye wash station in the office. The dentist had never used it before, nor had she heard of any other dentist ever using one, and it may not have been there otherwise.