Occupational Safety And Health (OSHA)

No. Federal OSHA does not impose the same comprehensive safety-audit requirement on every employer and workplace. Specific standards may require audits or evaluations in particular circumstances; for example, OSHA's Process Safety Management standard requires covered employers to evaluate compliance at least every three years. OSHA also recommends periodic evaluation of workplace safety and health programs, but its Recommended Practices do not create a universal regulatory audit requirement. Whether an audit was required therefore depends on the standards and activities applicable to the workplace.

No. OSHA permissible exposure limits, or PELs, are regulatory occupational exposure limits enforceable under applicable OSHA standards. NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limits, or RELs, and ACGIH Threshold Limit Values, or TLVs, are occupational exposure recommendations and are not themselves federal OSHA standards. These values may differ because they are developed under different authorities, purposes, and methodologies, so they should not be treated as interchangeable.

No. OSHA-approved State Plans must maintain standards and enforcement programs that are at least as effective as the federal OSHA program, but they do not always have to use identical requirements. A State Plan may adopt standards that differ from or are more stringent than corresponding federal OSHA requirements. For a case in a State Plan jurisdiction, the analysis should identify the state requirements that applied at the relevant location and time rather than assuming that the federal OSHA standard controlled.