In 1970, Congress passed the Occupational Health and Safety Act to "encourage employers and employees efforts to reduce the number of occupational safety and health hazards at their places of employment, and to stimulate employers and employees to institute new and to perfect existing programs for providing safe and healthful working conditions."  (OSHA Act of 1970, Section 2 (b) (1)).

As part of that act, Congress established the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) to enforce the worker safety regulations associated with this act.  The Occupational Health and Safety Standards in the United States are defined in Title 29 of the Federal Regulations Part 1910. Subpart O, for example, deals specifically with Machinery and Machine Guarding. It defines the general requirements for all machinery (1910.212), as well as specific requirements for certain types of machinery.

OSHA Regulations form the framework for Manufacturing Safety within the United States:

Subpart O deals specifically with Machinery and Machine Guarding. It defines the general requirements for all machinery (1910.212).

Subpart I deals specifically with Personal Protective Equipment.

Subpart S deals specifically with Electrical equipment and electrical hazards.

Section 147 deals specifically with The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)

Section 146 deals with Permit Required Confined Spaces

Section 145 deals with the Specification for Accident Prevention Sign and Tags

Other sections deal with additional issues. The online OSHA documents are the actual OSHA regulation which are currently applicable to machinery and equipment within the United States.

To link to the Table of Contents for all 1910 OSHA Regulations, click here. It is a good starting point when working through the OSHA regulations.

Also, check out the new OSHA Regulations app for the iPhone and iPad by Stability Technology. Click here or on the "iPad App" link at the top of the page for more information.