The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently published several new and updated worker and employer safety guides.
- Workers’ Rights - describes the rights to which workers are legally entitled under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The booklet covers many topics, including rights provided under OSHA standards, filing a complaint with OSHA, whistleblower protections, and educational and training resources available.
- Employer Rights and Responsibilities Following an OSHA Inspection - explains what happens after an inspection and defines the types of violations for which an employer may be cited as a result of an inspection.
- Small Entity Compliance Guide for Respiratory Protection Standard - provides small businesses with a comprehensive step-by-step guide complete with checklists and commonly asked questions that will aid both employees and workers in small businesses with a better understanding of OSHA’s respiratory protection standard. It provides instruction on how to select and fit test appropriate respirators to protect workers in many different industries. It includes new illustrations to help employers and workers identify different respirators, and describes how and where they should be used. The revised guide also explains how assigned protection factors and maximum use concentrations, detailed in OSHA’s revised standard, can help workers and employers assess the level of protection necessary in a given workplace.
- Laboratory Safety Guidance - series of new QuickCards and new publications for laboratory managers on protecting their workers from exposure to chemical, biological and physical hazards. This document describes how electrical, fire, explosions and falls, among other hazards, can be minimized or eliminated if employers use safety plans, worker training, engineering controls and personal protective equipment.
- Permit-Required Confined Spaces in General Industry - QuickCard explains what workers should do before entering a confined space, such as an underground vaults, tanks, storage bins, silos or manholes.
- Working Safely in Trenches - QuickCard provides illustrations of protective systems that should be used to prevent worker injuries and death from trench cave-ins.
- Protecting Workers from Heat Stress - QuickCard and poster emphasize the importance of employers providing workers with water, rest and shade to prevent workers from suffering heat illness, exhaustion and stroke.
Call 800.321.OSHA to order copies or order copies online from OSHA’s Publications page at www.osha.gov/pls/publications/publication.html.