Publications previously produced by SafeWork SA and ReturnToWorkSA (previously WorkCoverSA) are made available online via this Library catalogue for research purposes only. This title may reference superseded South Australian legislation, include links to web pages that have moved or no longer exist, or may refer to other documents that are no longer available. 

This paper reviews the present state of knowledge of the effectiveness of safety legislation in several jurisdictions. Despite its generally unquestioned acceptance, several studies have identified some limitations in the effectiveness of legislation and the salient features of those reviews are consolidated here. Following those reviews, this paper includes summaries of the impact of the OSHA legislation in the USA, and statistical reviews of recent legislation in Australia, All these studies conclude that legislation has lesser effectiveness in today's complex technological society than in the past, After exploring the reasons for this failure, the paper proposes an alternative based on the
expertise of properly qualified occupational safety and health specialists.
The paper ends with the strong suggestion that part of the ethnical responsibility of occupational safety and health professionals is that of monitoring the effectiveness of legislation and alternative strategies for injury prevention.