Occupational Safety and Health Act of

Safety and Health has the responsibility to guide and administer OSHA. Under the provisions of the Act, each employer covered by the Act has the following duties  

The general duty to furnish each of his/her employees employment and places of employment that are free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm (which means that even if a hazard in the workplace is not specifically covered by a regulation, the employer must protect the employee anyway). This is commonly referred to as the Act s General Duty Clause safety professionals and in particular OSHA professionals view it as a safety net.  

The specific duty of complying with safety and health standards 

Each employee has the duty to comply with the safety and health standards, as well as all rules, regulations, and orders applicable to his own actions and conduct on the job. Experience has shown that when employees are informed of this requirement under OSHA, they are surprised. They often view the Act as applying only to the employer. 

Obviously, to get accurate data upon which to base its judgment, OSHA requires extensive recordkeeping for written programs, injuries, illnesses, safety audits, inspections, corrections, and training. Training is a major part of the OSH Act. Almost every regulation requires some sort of transmission 

---

The motivation for ensuring good indoor air quality should be obvious. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 emphasizes the need for standards to protect the health and safety of workers. To fulfill this need, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has developed a strategy for disseminating information that assists employers to protect their workers from workplace hazards. This strategy includes the development of Special NIOSH Hazard Reviews, which support and complement the major standards development and hazard documentation activities of the Institute. These documents deal with... 

ORP Oxidation reduction potential - the degree of completion of a chemical reaction by detecting the ratio of ions in the reduced form to those in the oxidized form as a variation in electrical potential measured by an ORP electrode assembly. OSHA The Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA) is a law designed to protect the health and safety of industrial workers and treatment plant operators. It regulates the design, construction, operation and maintenance of industrial plants and wastewater treatment plants. The Act does not apply directly... 

The Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances. The Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS) [70] is a database of toxicological information compiled, maintained, and updated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 mandated the program. RTECS now contains over 133,000 chemicals as NIOSH strives to fulfill the mandate to list all known toxic substances and the concentrations at which toxicity is known to occur. This database is available for searching through the GOV. Research Center (GRQ service at http // grc.ntis.gov by subscription or by a day pass. 

In 1970 the US Congress enacted a health and safety law that continues to have a significant impact on the practices of industrial hygiene in the chemical industry the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHAct). To appreciate the significance of the OSHAct, it is helpful to review regulations and practices2 before 1970. 

The rights of chemists, employers, and professional societies are discussed in relation to layoffs and other grievances where the Labor Management Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1954, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 apply. Instances of political discrimination, blacklisting, employee entrapment and dismissal, and no-switching agreements are also included in the discussion. 

Subsequently, under the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, these same 1968 TLVs and ANSI standards were promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as the... 

OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)—see Occupational Safety and Health Act of 197Q. 

In addition to the Civil Rights Act, other laws and regulations affect the management ofhuman resources. For instance, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 established the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop and enforce workplace standards designed to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths (OSHA, 2007). Of particular relevance to pharmacy are OSHA s ergonomic workplace standards and its rules for preventing exposure to hazardous chemicals and bloodborne pathogens. 

Health hazards, both actual and potential, associated with the use of chemical compounds and mixtures in the working environment have recently received increasing attention. Activities related to the assessment of such hazards experienced significant impetus with the passage of the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-596). Many subsequent events have focused on the role of occupational exposure to various chemicals with respect to the health of members of the nation s work force. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 established the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. NIOSH is primarily for the purpose of carrying out the research and educational functions of the Act. The functions of NIOSH include the research programs aimed at identifying and evaluating hazards in the work environment. 

The National Safety Council of the United States reports volumes of statistics on recordable work injuries and illnesses based on recordkeeping requirements of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The 1995 figures were based on 124 million employees. [37]... 

Acting under the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-596), the NIOSH develops and periodically revises recommended exposure limits (RELs) for hazardous substances or conditions in the workplace. These recommendations are then published and transmitted to OSHA for use in promulgating legal standards. NIOSH may identify numerous chemicals that it believes should be treated as occupational carcinogens even though OSHA has not yet identified them as such. Generally, where OSHA has adopted the NIOSH recommendations as OSHA standards, the OSHA PELs and NIOSH RELs are equal. In cases in which the NIOSH recommendations have not been formally adopted by OSHA, the NIOSH RELs may be different from the OSHA PELs. For example, the NIOSH exposure limit for trichloroethylene (25 ppm) differs from the OSHA exposure limit (50 ppm). 

Contains toxic effects data (with citations) on over 157 000 chemicals identified by NIOSH and mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. Acute and chronic effects, selected regulatory information, lARC reviews, TSCA status, GENE-TOX data, and NTP documents cited. Data selectively included, not comprehensive. This database is compiled, maintained, and updated by MDL Information Systems, Inc., under the authority of the US government (CIS, Data-Star, DIALOG, DIMDI, STN CD version contained in CCINFOdisc Core Series C2 from CCOHS and CHEMBANK from Silver Platter). 

Assurances that new and existing chemical processes are conducted safely have never been more needed. Public awareness of the effects of chemical exposure has increased since the early 1970s. Although the initial focus of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 was on safety, clearly the emphasis now is on health. People at all levels of society are concerned about exposure to chemicals and the possible short- and longterm effects of chemicals on human health. The effects of chemicals on the environment from past or present waste sites, accidental releases or spills, and fires and explosions are reported daily in the news media. Control of all chemical processes to avoid accidental discharges and/or upsets that lead to fires, explosions, and environmental release is essential in the laboratory, the pilot plant, and the manufacturing plant. Chemical process hazard reviews are necessary at each step in the development of a process to ensure that the process can be controlled and conducted so as to minimize the risks to personnel, property, and the environment. 

Occupational illness and injury187 cost 30-40 billion dollars/yr in the United States.188 In 1994 there were 6.8 million injuries and illnesses in private industry, amounting to 8.4 cases per 100 workers. Nearly two-thirds were disorders associated with repeated trauma, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.189 The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 set up the National Institute Safety and Health (NIOSH) to study the problem and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to deal with it through inspections and regulations. Both have received so much criticism of their effectiveness that they are struggling to find more effective ways to deal with the problem.190 NIOSH is searching for practical ways to protect workers, especially those in small businesses from methylene chloride, tetrachloroethylene, diesel exhaust in coal mines, isocyanates, 2-methoxyethanol, and others. OSHA is about to expand a plan that worked well in Maine, a state that used to have one of the worst accident and illness records in the United States.191 The 200 firms with the worst records were asked to look for deficiencies and to correct them. They were also inspected. These measures cut injuries and illnesses over a 2-year period. 

Acting under the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 USC Chapter 15) and the Federal Mine Safety andHealth Actof 1977 (30 USC Chapter 22), NIOSH develops and periodically revises recommended exposure limits (RELs) for hazardous substances or conditions in the workplace. NIOSH also recommends appropriate preventive measures to reduce or eliminate the adverse health and safety effects of these... 

The high prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, has motivated the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to focus on standardization efforts. Recently, OSHA announced the initiation of rulemaking under Section 6(b) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 29 U.S.C. 655, to amend Part 1910 of Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations and requested information relevant to preventing, eliminating, and reducing occupational exposure to ergonomic hazards. 

---