Occupational
Safety and Health Administration otherwise known as OSHA is an organization
that ensures safe and healthy working conditions by enforcing standards of and
providing safety within the work place. The first major component is the
General Duty Clause. The General Duty Clause provides a guideline for employers;
it states that each employee and a place of employment are free from recognized
hazards. This clause also states that each employer should comply with the OSHA
standards of health and safety. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
goals are to conduct research to reduce worker illness and injury and to
advance workers overall well-being. Another goal is to promote safe and healthy
workers through interventions, recommendations and capacity building. The last
goal is to enhance international worker safety and health through global
collaborations. NIOSH is part of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
it is to assure safe and healthy working conditions to our nation.
Emergency Temporary
Standards is an authorized set of standards that take effect immediately and
are in effect until superseded by a permanent standard. OSHA is in charge of
determining if workers are in grave danger due to exposure to toxic substances
or agents determined to be toxic or physically harmful or to new hazards and
that an emergency standard is needed to protect them. Another major component
of OSHA’s Lab Safety are complaints and referrals. Complaints are one notices
of an alleged hazard given by past or present employee, a representative of the
employee or a concerned citizen. Complaints can be either formal or informal,
and if it is a serious complaint OSHA must inspect it within 30 days of filing.
If the complaints are not as serious
they will be inspected within 120 days of filing. A referral is when someone
notices an alleged hazard or violation of the Act given by any source.
Another main component is information and training.
Information and training is a continuous process when working for an
organization. This component is important because it provides information on
hazard communication which is how to talk about hazards in the lab. The training
is very frequent, it happens prior to beginning work, prior to new exposures
and periodically throughout the year as a refresher. Training items include:
hazard recognition methods, physical/ health hazards in the lab, use of
protective personal equipment and hazard control, and lastly covering the
content of chemical hygiene plans. The primary elements of CPH include,
minimizing exposure to chemicals by establishing standard operating procedures,
requirements for personal protective equipment engineering controls and waste
disposal procedures. For some chemicals, the work environment must be monitored
for levels that require action or medical attention. The last major component
is elements of laboratory standard. This is the standard that applies to
employers engaged in laboratory use of hazardous chemicals. Laboratory means a
facility where the use of hazardous chemical used on a non-production basis. Lab
use of hazardous chemicals is the handling or use of such chemicals in which,
chemical manipulations can be carried out on a lab scale , multiple procedures
are used, and the procedures involved are not part of a production process, nor
do they stimulate the production process.https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/laboratories/standards.html
https://www.osha.gov/Publications/laboratory/OSHAfactsheet-laboratory-safety-chemical-hygiene-plan.pdf
http://www.nsta.org/safety/
