Are you one of those concerned about health and safety on the job? You’re not alone. Across the length and breadth of the US, the millions of workers who are employed in the various sectors, be it manufacturing or services, or technological or agricultural, are prone to injury at the workplace. Not one kind of job or working condition or employment or workplace is free from the potential to cause injuries or illnesses. This is why there is every reason to be concerned about health and safety on the job.
Yet, there are a good number of security safeguards that have been put in place in the form of legislations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA has been primarily enacted with the purpose of giving employees rights to a safe workplace. Why every employee needs to be concerned about health and safety on the job is best answered by these disconcerting statistics:
OSHA is about dispelling concerns about health and safety on the jobConsidering the damage that concerns about health and safety on the job can cause to the workforce as well as to the economy, the US legislated OSHA way back in December 1970. The main intention of this historic piece of legislation was to ensure safety of workers at the workplace not just through suggestions, but through actionable steps.
The hallmark of this legislation is that it empowers employees to demand a safe workplace. If an employer is seen to be violating the provisions of OSHA or if the employee feels that there is some form of potential danger to her physical wellbeing at the workplace; she has the right to complain to OSHA without fear of being retaliated against.
A host of rights to assuage concerns about health and safety on the jobAmong the main features of OSHA is that it requires the employer to publish employee rights about their safety at the workplace. This enables them to allay concerns about health and safety on the job, as they have a ready reference to which they can go back in case of a doubt about the implementation aspects of any provision of OSHA. Employees who are concerned about health and safety on the job have the following rights:
These include mists, dust, fog, gases, sprays, vapors, etc. An employer who employs people who work in these conditions is expected to provide respirators to such employees. The employer may either provide these respiratory systems or allow the employee to use one of his own, so long as the product is of satisfactory quality standards. OSHA’s standard on Respiratory Protection 
One of the highlights of OSHA’s standard on Respiratory Protection Safety Management Systems is that it requires the employer to put in place a respiratory protection program. Each employer whose workplace has conditions that are hazardous to the respiratory system has to establish a written document that specifies what kind of respiratory system protection he has put in place at the facility. Procedures that are specific to the facility or workplace have to be described in this program.
Respirators for Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health (IDLH) need to be provided whenever and wherever necessary. The conditions that necessitate the issuance of IDLH respirators are spelt out by the OSHA’s standard on Respiratory Protection Safety Management Systems:
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