OSHA, a federal agency, is charged with the responsibility of regulating and minimizing safety and health hazards in the United States workplaces. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), has set standards on various topics concerning health hazards in workplaces. These regulations are found in the General Duty Clause, section 5(a), Act of 1970. There are situations and conditions at workplaces that are considered a violation of the General Duty Clause. This paper will describe an example of the violation of OSHA regulations and interpret OSHA standards. The OSHA guidelines are recommended for wall workplaces to adhere to. Ignoring the guidelines would automatically lead to a violation of the General Duty Clause Act. An example of a violation concerns machine guarding. There are standards that cover the guarding of machinery used at particular workplaces to protect the operators and other employees. Regarding machine safety and guarding, the standards state that, methods of machine guarding shall be provided for the protection of the operator and other employees in the machine area. Exposed blades should also be guarded, especially for blades that protrude above the working surface or floor. Fixed machines should also be anchored to avoid any injuries or hazards to the employees. The machine and the machine area should have in place all the general requirements for it to operate so as to prevent any unnecessary injuries and hazards to workers ( Janicak & Cekada, 2016). Workplaces that do not have the basic requirement to set up machines violate the General Duty Clause Act. Those that have machines with unguarded blades expose the operators and other employees to serious injuries and hazards. In some workplaces, employees do not receive proper training on the methods of handling and machine guarding. All these violations regarding machine guarding expose the workers to dangerous hazards in such workplaces. The statute sets the OSHA requirements and standards. Interpretation of the OSHA standards explains the requirements and how these requirements apply to various circumstances. Guidance can be updated from time to time to efficiently respond to new information. Interpretation is often made in the form of letters. Some of the interpretations are even helpful to the situation at my workplace. For instance, standard number 1908.1 talks about the unsafe and unsanitary conditions within the meat packing industry. Fortunately, OSHA has plans to check the standards of industries. Operating food industries which are unsafe with unsanitary conditions is a massive violation of the OSHA standards. Such industries must face penalties and charges. The OSHA standard number 1903.15 talks about penalties. OSHA is authorized to give penalties appropriately with the discovery of hazards in a given workplace. The standard number 1905.14 is associated with conveyor crossover styles. The standard states that the crossover should not exceed twelve inches. People or companies that violate the OSHA standards and guidelines must face charges. The standards are strict and must be followed to the letter. Personally, I love to work in a conducive environment. Hygiene in is important in workplaces, especially those dealing with food processing and manufacturing ( Brown, 2016). Food sold to the public must be prepared in safe conditions. Industries dealing with food processing must keenly adhere to OSHA standards to ensure safety. OSHA is eligible to provide penalties to those who violate the standard appropriately whenever threatening hazards are found in workplaces.
References
Brown, C. K. (2016, June). Worker Health and Safety Hazards in Water Treatment Operations: Analysis of OSHA Inspection Data. In the 2016 CSTE Annual Conference. Cste.
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Janicak, C. A., & Cekada, T. L. (2016). Regulating Forklift Safety: Strategies to Prevent Injury & Improve Compliance. Professional Safety, 61 (10), 38.
