OSHA Regulations on Emergency Preparedness

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's emergency preparedness regulations are divided into four sections. These sections detail the broader safety and emergency preparedness standards for industry in the United States, as well as the specific regulations that apply to maritime industries, construction, and state emergency response plans.

General Industry

• OSHA emergency preparedness standards for general industry are broad in scope, and cover many facets that could potentially affect the health and safety of employees, general population near a facility, or local environmental quality. Industries that use hazardous substances are required to document all hazardous materials used or produced, and keep Material Safety Data Sheets on hand for reference to each hazardous substance found in a particular facility, even if it is only being transported off site. Individual businesses must also develop a response plan in the event that an accidental release occurs. OSHA also firmly requires that all employees understand the response plan, and that every single employee of either evacuating safely, or performing their specific control duties in an emergency.

Maritime

• Context is important when dealing with emergencies. To ensure that safety standards remain effective, OSHA defines a separate section specifically for regulations in maritime industries. Although items like maintaining a response plan for each business are still required, the Maritime section also includes sections relevant to the challenges of most maritime operations. Prominent sections include cargo transport safety issues, "hot zones" or areas where active work is being done on electrical systems, welding and cutting using acetylene torches, and an entire subsection devoted to health and safety regulations for longshoring.

Construction

• Once again, OSHA regulations are careful to stipulate which items are redundant across all fields, and which items are more common or relevant to certain areas of industry. Under the Construction heading, issues such as exposure to high decibel levels, high-profile hazardous substances like Asbestos and Methylenedianiline, and control of waste products which may adversely affect health. The use of personal protective equipment, or PPE, is also important for construction. Often times structures undergoing retrofits are prone to collapse or failure, and having access to extraction and excavation tools can become vital to preventing deaths or prolonged exposure to hazardous substances.

State Plans

• Under OSHA requirements, a state plan must be at least as comprehensive as the federal standards would indicate. Beyond this, state plans typically include more relevant context for the local hazards. For instance, it is unlikely that the land-locked state of Nevada would include measures for hurricane preparedness in their state plan. Often times a state will begin with the bare minimum federal standards, and develop new and more relevant additions as their budget allows. State directives can be update as needed to change the focus of emergency preparedness programs, often times in conjunction with newly perceived hazards.