OSHA Standards: A Guide to Health and Safety Compliance

What are OSHA Standards?

OSHA standards are sets of guidelines and requirements enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to minimize health and safety risks in workplaces. They regulate companies to maintain safe and healthy working conditions and provide suitable training and assistance to their employees before doing their jobs. OSHA standards are also known as OSHA regulations or OSHA requirements because they are stipulated in Part 1910 Title 29 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

OSHA Regional Divisions

OSHA operates through a number of regional offices across the country and even abroad, each of which oversees the implementation and enforcement of OSHA standards within its area. Some of these offices include:

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work

Or EU-OSHA is a European Union agency that provides information, support, and resources to improve occupational safety and health across Europe.

California Division of Occupational Safety and Health

This California OSHA arm, also known as Cal/OSHA, is a state-level agency in California that operates under the California Department of Industrial Relations.

Oregon Occupational Safety and Health

Oregon OSHA, meanwhile, is a state-run program responsible for enforcing occupational safety and health standards, conducting inspections, providing education and training, and promoting safe and healthy working conditions for all workers in Oregon.

OSHA Safety Standards

An OSHA safety standard is a list of material and equipment requirements along with guidelines and instructions for employers to minimize employee risk in the performance of work. Adherence to OSHA standards protects workers from fatal hazards and health risks. It is organized into four major industries, specifically OSHA standards for construction and general industry, maritime, and agriculture.

OSHA Standards for General Industry

This section outlines OSHA’s occupational safety and health requirements, covering businesses that do not fall strictly under the agriculture, construction, and maritime industries. Employers must do the following standard examples:

• Provide the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) to each employee where necessary. Failure to provide the appropriate PPE may place the employer in violation of OSHA standards for each employee.

• Provide safety training to employees, either in-house or through third-party providers, to prepare them for workplace hazards.

• Ensure that all work areas, including production floors, storage rooms, and walking surfaces, are kept clean, orderly, and sanitary.

• Ensure that all walking-working surfaces are strong enough to support the combined weight of workers, equipment, and machinery in that area.

• Keep walking-working surfaces free of hazards like sharp objects, loose boards, leaks, spills, and ice.

• Provide safe entry and exit points for walking-working areas.

• Regularly inspect and maintain walking-working surfaces to ensure safety.

• Correct or repair hazardous walking-working areas before allowing employee access. If immediate action isn’t possible, close off access until repairs are done.

• Provide readily accessible and portable fire extinguishers to employees.

To help improve the safety of workplace officers, listed below are OSHA standard checklists for the general industry.

• Hazardous Materials

• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• First Aid

• Fire Protection

• Electrical

OSHA Standards for Construction

This section talks about some of the most prominent employer responsibilities in the construction industry:

• Ensure that employees are adequately trained and experienced to operate equipment and machinery.

• Ensure that first aid services and medical provisions are available for all employees.

• Provide and require employees to wear appropriate PPE in all operations where hazardous conditions are present.

• During the course of construction work, employers must ensure that harmful debris is cleared from work areas.

• Ensure that adequate illumination, whether natural or artificial, is available in walking-working areas where work is in progress.

• When harmful noise levels are present, employers must use administrative and engineering controls. If these are insufficient, they must provide employees with PPE to protect against excessive noise.

• Provide fall protection, such as guardrails, safety nets, and safety harnesses, to employees working at a height of six feet or more.

• Develop consistent implementation of an effective fire protection and prevention program for the entire duration of construction, repair, alteration, and/or demolition work.

• Ensure that all electrical equipment used at the job site is safe and free from recognized hazards that may cause injury or death.

• Ensure pressure vessels and boilers have current certification from an insurance company or regulatory authority to confirm safe installation, inspection, and testing.

Browse these OSHA inspection checklists for the construction industry.

• Hand and Power Tools

• Scaffolding

• Fall Protection

• Excavation

• Ladder

• Crane

OSHA Standards for Maritime

In the maritime industry, meanwhile, employers should do the following:

• Ensure that atmospheric testing is done for oxygen content, flammability, and toxicity, in that order.

• Ensure a qualified person inspects and tests these spaces for oxygen content before employee entry:

  • Sealed spaces, including but not limited to spaces that have been coated and non-ventilated spaces that have been freshly painted

  • Spaces with current/past flammable or corrosive substances

  • Fumigated spaces

  • Spaces with oxygen-depleting materials

  • Ensure that all rooms determined to be oxygen-deficient or oxygen-enriched are labeled “Not Safe for Workers.”

• Maintain oxygen levels between 19.5% and 22.0% in all rooms and spaces. Label areas outside this range as “Not Safe for Workers.”

• Ensure that anyone who enters confined spaces and other dangerous atmospheres, is properly trained to exit the space in instances where:

  • An authorized person orders an evacuation

  • An evacuation signal or alarm is activated

  • The person determines that he or she is in danger

• Establish a shipyard rescue team or hire a third-party rescue team ready to quickly respond to rescue requests:

  • Should an employer establish a shipyard rescue team, each team member must receive adequate training for their rescue duties, including entry into confined spaces and other areas with dangerous atmospheres.

  • Employers must ensure shipyard rescue teams practice their skills annually using equipment and facilities that effectively simulate real rescue situations.

• If changes to a vessel alter conditions in a confined space, which may introduce possible hazards, work must be stopped and resumed only after inspection and testing confirm safety.

The following OSHA standard checklists for the maritime industry can help employers ensure a healthy environment for their employees.

• Welding

• Confined Space

• Pressure Vessel Inspection

OSHA Standards for Agriculture

Lastly, for the agriculture industry, employers must:

• Ensure that each tractor used by employees has a working seatbelt to keep the worker confined in the safe area within the operator’s station.

• Store batteries, fuel tanks, oil containers, and coolants in a sealed area to protect employees from spills.

• Ensure protective frames on wheel-type tractors have passed standard lab and field-upset tests to certify their effectiveness in preventing injury from accidental upsets.

• Ensure that employees assigned to operate machinery are adequately trained in the safe operation and servicing of agricultural equipment such as:

  • Keep all guards in place during machine operation.

  • Permit no other riders on the equipment other than the operator and necessary personnel.

  • Stop the engine, disconnect it from the power source, and ensure it is completely stopped before repairs or cleaning, unless the machine must be running for servicing.

• Provide ample free, cool drinking water to field workers, considering temperature, humidity, and work intensity.

Browse these OSHA standard checklists for the agricultural industry:

• General Agriculture Inspection

• General Environmental Controls

OSHA Functions

Essentially, OSHA operates with two main functions—as a safety enforcer and as a safety consultant:

OSHA's Two Main Functions

1. Safety Enforcer

OSHA’s most prominent function is to ensure that employers and employees all over the United States comply with their safety standards. Failure to comply with OSHA’s standards can lead to hefty fines, legal consequences, and a tarnished reputation. OSHA’s compliance safety and health officers visit workplaces and perform on-site inspections to identify and point out potential safety hazards to employers and employees.

2. Safety Consultant

OSHA provides free safety consultations to employers upon request. Through this function, an OSHA consultant will perform a walkthrough inspection with the employer to identify workplace hazards, provide suggestions on how to eliminate safety issues, and assist employers in  maintaining an effective safety and health program. OSHA consultants can also provide safety training for both the employer and employees on-site or off-site, subject to approval.

What Does OSHA Cover?

OSHA covers all private-sector workers in all 50 states. State and local government workers only have OSHA coverage if they work in states that have OSHA-approved programs. Self-employed workers and workers protected by other federal agencies, such as the Mine Safety and Health Administration, are not covered by OSHA.