Occupational Safety and Health Act

29 U.S.C. 651 et seq. (1970)

Congress passed the Occupational and Safety Health Act to ensure worker and workplace safety. Their Goal was to make sure employers provide their workers a place of employment free from recognized hazards to safety and health, such as exposure to toxic chemicals, excessive noise levels, mechanical dangers, heat or cold stress, or unsanitary conditions.

In order to establish standards for workplace health and safety, the Act also created the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH ) as the research institution for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA ). OSHA is a division of the U.S. Department of Labor that oversees the administration of the Act and enforces standards in all 50 states.

Full text of the Occupational Safety and Health Act

The full text version of this law is hosted by Cornell University. This collection was generated from the most recent version of the Government Printing Office CD-ROM. The Government Printing Office maintains the official government version of the laws through the GPO Access database structure.

The U.S. Code is the official record of all federal laws and contains the general and permanent laws of the United States. The most recent version of the U.S. Code released in electronic form contains the laws in effect as of January 16, 1996. For more recent laws, please see the uncompiled Public Laws as passed by Congress available through the Thomas Legislative Information Web site.

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