CE Units: 3 CEU

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a large regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that has federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. Congress established the agency under the Occupational Safety and Health Act OSH Act, which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 29, 1970.

Its mission is to “assure safe and healthy working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance.”

The agency is also charged with enforcing a variety of whistleblower statutes and regulations. OSHA’s workplace safety inspections have been shown to reduce injury rates and injury costs without adverse effects on employment, sales, credit ratings, or firm survival.

ADA Policy on Occupational Safety and Health

POLICIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

The ADA recognizes the importance of engineering and work practice controls recommended by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in preventing the transmission of bloodborne pathogens from a needlestick and other sharps-related injuries in dental settings.

The ADA encourages dentists to maintain knowledge of and compliance with federal standards and other applicable regulations for eliminating or minimizing occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens and preventing injury and illness in dental settings.

It is the position of the American Dental Association that its members, in effort to promote a safe workplace, use materials in the dental health care setting that have been appropriately labeled by the manufacturer or distributor to comply with the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard, and for which the manufacturer/distributor has supplied a current safety data sheet (SDS), and be it further

The ADA supports its members by providing access to current information, forms, and prototypes as needed to help them comply with occupational safety and health requirements affecting dental health care settings.

The ADA encourages and supports fair systems of compliance with applicable state and federal law(s) for preventing injury and illness in the dental office.