Workers Memorial Day is also a time to demand that the government act to lessen the hazards in America's workplaces. The recent deaths in a West Virginia coal mine notorious for its safety violations is but one more example of the need for expansion and adequate enforcement of occupational health and safety regulations. As long as state and federal regulatory authorities fail to adequately enforce the neglected job safety laws, the number of victims will remain at its terrible and unnecessarily high level.

How high is that level? Each year, more than 6,000 Americans are killed in on the job accidents and over 6 million more are injured, at least half of them seriously. An additional 60,000 die from cancer, lung and heart ailments and other occupational diseases caused by exposure to toxic substances or radiation.This amounts to an average of at least 16 workers killed and nearly 5,500 badly hurt on each and every day, plus another 135 dying daily from job-related illnesses. The financial cost is also high, with more than $3 billion annually in health care expenses and other costs, such as lost wages and productivity, resulting from workplace injuries and illnesses.

Public health efforts to prevent workplace deaths and injuries, always a difficult challenge, became even more difficult when the Bush administration took office, bringing eight years of what the United Auto Workers accurately cited as "a harsh, vindictive attack on health and safety standards." Under President Bush, important new health and safety regulations proposed by public health and safety experts were rejected or ignored by the Bush Labor Department. Worksite inspections were practically abandoned and employers were asked merely to certify that they had voluntarily complied with the existing regulations. Fines for violations that were uncovered were usually so minimal that many employers simply ignored the laws and considered the occasional fine a routine cost of doing business. Criminal charges against employers whose willful violations led to injury, illness or death were rarer still. In brief, the Bush administration showed no interest in enforcing the job safety laws, and absolutely no progress was made in reducing workplace dangers or the ever-mounting number of work-related injuries and fatalities while he remained in office.

Has President Obama brought genuine hope for change? His Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, declared at her swearing-in, "there's a new sheriff in town." Under her leadership the Labor Department has moved to enforce health and safety rules and to better protect some of the most endangered workers, including mine workers and crane operators. It is a very hopeful sign that the Labor Department under Solis has shifted its policy from reliance on voluntary compliance to stricter enforcement. The Department has hired hundreds of new inspectors for the Occupational Safety and Health and Mine Safety Administrations. A very good sign is the selection of Dr. David Michaels, one of the country's most distinguished safety experts, to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).