Introduction

Primary responsibility: a workplace free from hazards.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requires that each employer "...furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm..." (29 U.S.C. 651, Sec. 5(a)(1)).

Basic Employer Responsibilities

The employer should see that workers are properly instructed and supervised in the safe operation of any machinery, tools, equipment, process, or practice which they are authorized to use or apply. This should not be construed to require a supervisor positioned on every part of an operation or to prohibit workers from working alone.

The employer should take all reasonable means to require employees:

• work and act in a safe and healthful manner;
• conduct their work in compliance with all applicable safety and health rules;
• use all means and methods, including but not limited to, ladders, scaffolds, guardrails, machine guards, safety belts and lifelines, that are necessary to safely accomplish all work where employees are exposed to a hazard; and
• not remove, displace, damage, destroy or carry off any safety device, guard, notice or warning provided for use in any employment or place of employment while such use is required by applicable safety and health rules.

Every employer should be responsible for providing the health hazard control measures necessary to protect the employees' health from harmful or hazardous conditions and for maintaining such control measures in good working order and in use.

Employers should inform the employees regarding the known health hazards to which they are exposed, the measures which have been taken for the prevention and control of such hazards, and the proper methods for utilizing such control measures.

Basic Employee Responsibilities

All employees should conduct their work in compliance with their employer's safety policies and rules. Employees should report all injuries immediately to the person in charge or other responsible representative of the employer. Employees should make full use of safeguards provided for their protection.

If your employer does not currently have general formal/written safety rules, please begin now to make sure these rules and others specific to your workplace are written and communicated to employees.

Safety Inspections

Employers should make sure their workplaces are inspected by a qualified person or persons as often as the type of operation or the character of the equipment requires. Defective equipment or unsafe conditions found by these inspections should be replaced or repaired or remedied promptly. Make sure a written and dated report, signed by the person or persons making the inspection, is completed and used to provide information to improve the safety management system.

Course Objectives

This online course will cover some of the basic principles and concepts related to hazard identification and control. More specifically, if you complete the reading and assignments, at the end of the course, you will be able to:

• identify the 13 general workplace hazard categories;
• describe the four primary procedures used to identify hazards;
• discuss the various accident types that might result if hazards are not corrected;
• describe possible engineering and management hazard control strategies;
• discuss various problem-solving techniques to help control hazards; and
• prepare an effective recommendation.

Modules

To begin your training, click on the module links below. If you are just starting this course, you should start with module 1.

1. Basic Concepts
2. Hazard Categories
3. Identifying Hazards
4. Analyzing the Workplace
5. Controlling Hazards
6. Problem Solving
7. Effective Recommendations

Please login to your student dashboard to access and download this FREE course PDF studyguide. You can save this study guide to your computer for offline studying, or print the study guide if you prefer.

Course 704 Final Exam

After studying the course material and answering the quiz questions, it is time to take the final exam. We highly recommend answering the module quiz questions to check your understanding of the course material. The final exam questions are typically developed from these quiz questions.

OSHAcademy course final exams are designed to make sure students have gained a sufficient understanding of the content covered within each course. To help demonstrate this understanding, students must achieve a passing score on course final exams. It is OSHAcademy's policy to protect the integrity of our exams: as a result, we do not provide missed questions to students.

This is an open book exam. Students are permitted to use a separate browser window to review course content while taking the exam. If you do not pass a final exam, you will see a "Retake Exam" button next to the course on your student dashboard.

If you have already paid for your certificate

If you have already paid for certificates, your exam score will be displayed on your student dashboard after successfully passing the final exam. If you chose PDF certificates, you can view and print your certificate and personal transcript from your student dashboard. If you chose original printed documents, they will be prepared and mailed to the address in your student account.

If you only want free training

OSHAcademy provides free access to all training materials, including course modules, practice quizzes, exercises, and final exams. However, exam scores, certificates, and transcripts are provided only if you purchase a certificate package to document your training. If you do not require official training documentation, we will archive your exam results should you decide to purchase official certificates later.

Take the Final Exam

References

• Hazard Identification and Assessment Page=, OSHA
• OSHA eTool Matrix=, OSHA
• OSHA Safety Pays=, OSHA
• Foundation for a Safe Workplace, Oregon OSHA
• Field Operation Manuel, OSHA
• Hazard Identification Training Tool, OSHA

Additional Resources

• Napo's Films, Via Storia
• Injury Data and Statistics
• Safeopedia