OSHA's General Duty Clause is one of the most important but misunderstood parts of OSHA compliance. What is it? What does it mean? And what does the General Duty Clause require employers to do?
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) protects American workers' safety and health from workplace hazards. There are exceptions–when OSHA regulations don't apply or are handled by another agency–but federal employees are firmly under their purview.
Have you ever wondered what this means for our troops? They're federal employees, and they certainly have plenty of workplace hazards.
What Does Safety Management Mean in Construction?
Construction sites are naturally chaotic places – lots of dangerous tools, sensitive materials, and multiple teams or contractors trying to meet their goals.
If it's not managed correctly, it can harm everyone's health and safety.
The word "complacency" doesn't exactly strike fear into anyone's heart. It doesn't sound like an active threat to anyone's health or safety. But when it comes to workplace safety, that's a dangerously inaccurate understanding of what can happen when everyone is a little too comfortable with job-related risks.
Because safety complacency could be killer.
What is a Biological Hazard?
Biological hazards are any substances that threaten the health of living organisms. They are sometimes shortened to "biohazards" for convenience.
In workplace safety circles, we're concerned explicitly by threats to human health and safety.
When you think of a workplace accident, you probably think of something dramatic – an explosion or an amputation, for example.
But the second-most common cause of workplace injury is a trip or slip hazard that leads to a fall. And 20-30% of workplace falls result in a moderate or severe injury like deep bruising, broken bones, or concussions.
What is Root Cause Analysis?
A root cause analysis (RCA) is a process for finding the ultimate source of a problem (the root cause). It goes beyond the readily apparent cause and effect to pinpoint the flaws in a process or system that contributed the issue. When defining root cause analysis, OSHA calls it a "fundamental, underlying, system-related reason why an incident occurred that identifies one or more correctable system errors."
What Is the Hierarchy of Controls?
The safety hierarchy of controls is a hazard control measure model that removes the hazard or minimizes the risk. Essentially, it's an ordered list of control categories that you can use to identify and rank potential safeguards.
It's also called the hierarchy of hazard controls or the risk control hierarchy.
If you're looking into employment in New York City construction, one of the first questions you will ask is what NYC's OSHA requirements are. That's when you'll get many confusing results about NYC DOB, Local Law 196, and OSHA/SST card…stuff.
