Final answer:
OSHA is responsible for setting and enforcing workplace safety standards, bolstering safety by requiring employers to minimize hazards and inform employees about risks. These responsibilities include regulatory enforcement through inspections and compliance assessments across various industries.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a regulatory agency within the United States Department of Labor. Its mandate is to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for workers by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance. Specifically, OSHA's responsibilities include but are not limited to issuing standards for fall protection, cave-in prevention for trenching, managing exposure to infectious diseases, ensuring the safety of confined space work, chemical hazard exposure, and machine guarding.
Employers are required under OSHA regulations to prioritize the elimination or reduction of hazards through changes in working conditions or processes, rather than relying solely on personal protective equipment (PPE), unless PPE is the only feasible means of protection. Employers are also mandated to inform their workers about chemical hazards via training and other methods such as labels, alarms, and chemical information sheets.
OSHA exercises its regulatory authority through inspections, conducted by Compliance Safety and Health Officers, to ensure adherence to all safety and health standards. Inspections may be scheduled based on specific criteria such as industry hazard profile, workplace fatalities, hospitalizations, worker complaints, or referrals.