A Guide to the OSHA’s Health and Safety Standards
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has the authority, under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, to regulate the health and safety of workplaces. This includes developing standards and rules, providing consultation and education to employers and the enforcement of those standards.
OSHA is responsible for occupational health and safety rules relate to injury prevention in many ways. Examples include personal protective equipment, machine safety guards, lock-out tag-out working, safety harnessing, etc. Other regulations seek to maintain safe and healthy work environments by the monitoring of factors such as noise, airborne particulate and chemical contact (silica, asbestos, solvents, pesticides, etc.). Virtually all industries are affected by OSHA rules and enforcement including the construction, manufacturing, maritime, and agriculture industries, among others.
OSHA standards are intended to help employers protect workers from a vast array of potential risks. Minnesota Occupational Health (MOH) develops, sponsors and hosts workshops on a variety of occupational health and safety topics.
Minnesota Occupational Health provides a wide array of preventative testing and medical surveillance to employers and their workers, in addition to non-life-threatening injury care for work-related injuries. Common utilized MOH services involve both baseline and periodic surveillance for respirator use, special color vision testing, audiograms for establishing baseline and comparative hearing thresholds, as well as blood levels of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic and others. MOH’s Eagan clinic is NIOSH certified to perform Coal Worker X-ray surveillance.
In the event of a work injury, all three MOH clinics provide urgent care services including suturing of open wounds, sprains, strains, dislocations and fractures as well as chemical and thermal burns. Injured workers are treated promptly on a walk-in basis and employers receive prompt communications as to the expected course of treatment and any specific light duty restrictions that would help the workers remain safe and productive while recovering.
To learn more about these services please contact MOH at (651) 968-5300 or at contact@mohonline.com.