Sterile Processing Department (SPD) Certification Practice Test

Safety in the workplace is protected by an agency that writes rules, inspects sites, and enforces compliance to prevent injuries and illnesses. That agency is OSHA. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is the part of the federal Department of Labor dedicated to ensuring safe and healthy working conditions. It creates standards on areas like hazard communication, machine guarding, respiratory protection, and bloodborne pathogens, and it requires employers to maintain safe workplaces, train employees, and keep records of injuries and illnesses. OSHA also conducts inspections and can issue citations or penalties to ensure compliance. The other agencies have different primary focuses: the DOT regulates transportation safety; the CDC focuses on public health surveillance and disease prevention; the EPA protects environmental quality. In workplaces such as healthcare or sterile processing, OSHA governs the safety practices that protect workers from occupational hazards.