OSHA Trivia
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48 free OSHA trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
42 free OSHA trivia questions with answers. These OSHA trivia questions are built for safety meetings, toolbox talks and anyone studying for an OSHA 10 or 30 card. They cover the agency itself (who created it, which department it sits in, what it does not cover, how it differs from NIOSH and MSHA), the workers' rights it enforces, how inspections are prioritised and run, and the reporting clocks: 8 hours for a fatality, 24 for a hospitalisation, 30 days for a retaliation complaint. The bulk of the quiz is the standards people actually get cited under: fall protection at 4 feet in general industry and 6 feet in construction, guardrail height, ladder extension, the 90 dBA noise limit and 85 dBA hearing-conservation trigger, the 16-section Safety Data Sheet, lockout/tagout, permit-required confined spaces, trench protection at 5 feet, forklift evaluations every three years and fire extinguisher travel distance. A few history questions (the Triangle fire, the first hard hat, the 1970 act) round it out. Every answer has been checked against osha.gov's own standards and fact sheets or a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01OSHA is an agency within which part of the US federal government?
Labor
Labor is home to OSHA, a small agency for its task: with its state partners it fields only a couple of thousand inspectors for 130 million workers at more than 8 million worksites.
Q 02Which president signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act into law on December 29, 1970?
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon signed it after a three-year fight: Lyndon Johnson, who called more than 14,000 job deaths a year 'the shame of a modern industrial nation', had failed to get a similar bill through Congress in 1968.
Q 03Which OSH Act provision requires employers to keep workplaces free of recognised hazards even without a specific rule?
The General Duty Clause
The General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the act, is what OSHA cites for hazards such as heat stress or workplace violence that have no dedicated standard.
Q 04Which of these groups is left outside the protection of the OSH Act?
The self-employed
The self-employed are left outside because the act works through employers, defined as people who have employees; farm employers' immediate family and workplaces another federal agency regulates are also left out.
Q 05How must a state-run safety plan compare with federal OSHA?
At least as effective
At least as effective as OSHA is the 1970 act's test; a state that passes it polices its own workplaces in place of federal inspectors, and Washington pays up to half the running costs.
Q 06Under OSHA's accident-prevention sign rules, which color is reserved for 'Danger' signs?
Red
Red is reserved for Danger signs, allowed only where a hazard is immediate, and workers must be taught that they call for special precautions; merely possible hazards get yellow Caution signs.
Q 07OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program recognises employers whose injury and illness rates are what?
Below their industry's national average
Below their industry's national average is the bar for these volunteer 'model workplaces', which apply to OSHA, pass an on-site review and are re-evaluated every three to five years.
Q 08OSHA's Forms 300, 300A and 301 are used for what?
Recording work-related injuries and illnesses
Recording work-related injuries and illnesses is what the three forms do, and the log is no company secret: current and former workers have the right to ask for a copy.
Q 09The annual OSHA 300A injury summary must be posted in the workplace from February 1 until which date?
April 30
April 30 ends a three-month posting meant to show workers their own site's injury record, and to make someone accountable a company executive has to sign the summary off before it goes up.
Q 10How quickly must employers report a work-related death to OSHA?
Within 8 hours
Within 8 hours, and a voicemail or email to a closed OSHA office does not count: the employer must ring the 24-hour hotline or file online, while hospitalisations and amputations get 24 hours.
Q 11How long does a worker punished for complaining to OSHA have to file a whistleblower claim?
30 days
30 days is all a safety whistleblower gets, a tight clock beside other laws OSHA enforces: an employee punished for reporting corporate fraud under Sarbanes-Oxley has 180 days to complain.
Q 12According to OSHA, workers have the right to receive safety and health training in what?
In a language they understand
In a language they understand, and at a vocabulary level they can follow: OSHA's policy is that an employer who gives everyday work instructions in Spanish must deliver the safety training in Spanish too.
Q 13Across all US jobs, which kind of event kills the most workers each year?
Q 21Under OSHA's ladder rule, the base-to-support distance should be what fraction of the ladder's working length?
One-quarter
One-quarter is the '4 to 1' rule: one foot out for every four feet up sets the ladder at about 75 degrees, the pitch that keeps a climber balanced and stops the base sliding away from the wall.
Q 22OSHA allows eight hours at 90 dBA; each 5-decibel rise does what to that time?
Halves it
Halves it, so 100 dBA is legal for only 2 hours a day; NIOSH, the federal research institute, recommends a stricter rule that would halve the time with every 3 decibels.
Q 23Under the Hazard Communication Standard, Safety Data Sheets must follow a format with how many sections?
16
Transportation incidents
Transportation incidents lead because millions of people drive as part of the job, whatever their trade, so the risk reaches nearly every industry; drivers and movers of goods lose more lives than any other occupational group.
Q 14In the hierarchy of hazard controls OSHA promotes, which control is ranked most effective?
Elimination
Elimination ranks first because a hazard that is gone cannot hurt anyone, as when a job at height is moved to the ground; protective gear ranks last because it works only if worn correctly.
Q 15Which standard has ranked second on OSHA's most-cited list in both fiscal 2024 and 2025?
Hazard Communication
Hazard Communication, the rule on chemical labels and safety data sheets, was runner-up both years; OSHA publishes the ranking so employers can find and fix these hazards before an inspector shows up.
Q 16OSHA says the leading cause of death in construction is what?
Falls
Falls kill more construction workers than any other hazard, so each spring OSHA asks employers to pause work for a voluntary National Safety Stand-Down and talk their crews through the dangers.
Q 17On a US construction site, an unprotected edge needs guardrails, nets or harnesses once it is how far above a lower level?
6 feet
6 feet is the trigger on a building site, and the same number governs the harness itself: it must be rigged so its wearer can neither free-fall more than 6 feet nor strike a lower level.
Q 18In factories and warehouses, OSHA's general industry rules demand protection at an open edge how far above a lower level?
4 feet
4 feet is the trigger in general industry, and above dangerous equipment such as open vats or running machinery even that allowance vanishes: workers must be protected whatever the drop.
Q 19On an OSHA guardrail, which part is there to protect people working below rather than the worker at the edge?
The toeboard
The toeboard, a low barrier at least 3.5 inches high along the floor edge, stops tools and debris being kicked onto people below; the top rail, set 42 inches up, is there for the worker.
Q 20A portable ladder used to reach an upper landing must have side rails that extend at least how far above it?
3 feet
3 feet of side rail must stand above the landing to give a handhold for stepping off; if the ladder is too short for that, it has to be tied off at the top and fitted with a grab device.
16 sections in a fixed order, yet OSHA polices only twelve of them: sections 12 to 15, on ecology, disposal, transport and regulation, must be there but are other agencies' business.
Q 24OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard was aligned in 2012 with which international chemical labelling scheme?
The GHS
The GHS is a United Nations scheme built to replace the world's patchwork of chemical labels, which is why US containers now carry the same pictograms and the signal words 'Danger' or 'Warning' as those abroad.
Q 25OSHA's lockout/tagout standard deals with what?
Controlling hazardous energy during servicing
Controlling hazardous energy during servicing comes down to a padlock: each worker locks the machine's power off before reaching in, and normally only the person who fitted a lock may take it off.
Q 26By OSHA's definition, a confined space has limited entry or exit and was built without what in mind?
Continuous occupancy
Continuous occupancy was never the plan for tanks, silos and manholes, which makes them hard to escape and dangerous to enter after an accident: employers must plan rescues and keep untrained helpers out.
Q 27Which of these would make a confined space 'permit-required' under OSHA rules?
It could contain a hazardous atmosphere
It could contain a hazardous atmosphere, toxic gas or too little oxygen, so nobody goes in until a supervisor has signed a permit posted at the opening and an attendant is stationed outside to keep watch.
Q 28Unless it is dug in solid rock, a trench needs a cave-in protective system once it reaches what depth?
5 feet
5 feet is where sloping, shoring or a shield box becomes mandatory, because soil is far heavier than it looks: a single cubic yard can weigh as much as a car.
Q 29Under OSHA's excavation rules, who must inspect a trench before work starts each day?
A competent person
A competent person sounds like faint praise, but OSHA defines the role: someone able to spot existing and predictable hazards and authorised to fix them at once, which includes ordering everyone out of the trench.
Q 30Under OSHA rules, how often must an employer evaluate each forklift operator's performance?
Every three years
Every three years is only the backstop: an operator seen driving unsafely, or involved in an accident or a near-miss, must be given refresher training and evaluated again whatever the calendar says.