FAQ's

Employers have the responsibility to provide a safe workplace. Employers MUST provide their workers with a workplace that does not have serious hazards and must follow all OSHA safety and health standards. Employers must find and correct safety and health problems. OSHA further requires that employers must first try to eliminate or reduce hazards by making feasible changes in working conditions rather than relying on personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, or earplugs. Switching to safer chemicals, enclosing processes to trap harmful fumes, or using ventilation systems to clean the air are examples of effective ways to eliminate or reduce risks.

All covered employers are required to prominently display the official OSHA "Job Safety and Health - It's the Law" poster that describes rights and responsibilities under the OSH Act. Federal government agencies must use the Federal Agency Poster. Employers do not need to replace previous versions of the poster. The OSHA poster (OSHA 3165) is available for free from the OSHA Office of Publications.

You can get information on health and safety hazards in the workplace either by searching the health and safety topics pages on OSHA's website at http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/index.html   by topic or by looking up specific hazards in our A-Z index (http://www.osha.gov/html/a-z-index.html ).