50 free OSHA trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01OSHA is an agency within which part of the US federal government?
Labor
Its sister research agency, NIOSH, sits in a different department entirely, inside the CDC.
Q 02Which president signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act into law on December 29, 1970?
Richard Nixon
The agency itself opened for business on April 28, 1971, the day the act took effect; that date is now Workers' Memorial Day.
Q 03Which OSH Act provision requires employers to keep workplaces free of recognised hazards even without a specific rule?
The General Duty Clause
Section 5(a)(1) is what OSHA cites for hazards such as heat stress or workplace violence that have no dedicated standard.
Q 04Which of these groups is NOT covered by the OSH Act?
The self-employed
Immediate family members of farm employers and hazards regulated by another federal agency (mines, for instance) are also outside OSHA's reach.
Q 05How many US states and territories run OSHA-approved plans covering private workplaces?
22
California, Michigan, Washington and Oregon are among them; a further handful of states run plans that cover only public employees.
Q 06Roughly how many inspectors does OSHA have to cover more than 8 million workplaces?
About 2,400
That works out to one compliance officer for every 50,000-plus workers, which is why the agency leans on complaints, targeting and voluntary programs.
Q 07OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program recognises employers whose injury and illness rates are what?
Below their industry's national average
VPP sites are exempt from programmed inspections and often display a Star flag at the gate.
Q 08OSHA's Forms 300, 300A and 301 are used for what?
Recording work-related injuries and illnesses
Employers with more than ten employees who are not in a partially exempt industry must keep them; the 300 is the log, the 301 the incident report and the 300A the annual summary.
Q 09The annual OSHA 300A injury summary must be posted in the workplace from February 1 until which date?
April 30
The rule is 1904.32(b)(6); the summary must be certified by a company executive before it goes up.
Q 10How quickly must employers report a work-related death to OSHA?
Within 8 hours
In-patient hospitalisations, amputations and losses of an eye get 24 hours; the report can be made by phone or online.
Q 11How long does a worker punished for complaining to OSHA have to file a whistleblower claim?
30 days
That is the deadline under the OSH Act itself; some of the two dozen other whistleblower statutes OSHA enforces allow longer.
Q 12According to OSHA, workers have the right to receive safety and health training in what?
In a language they understand
Workers can also file a confidential complaint, review injury logs and get copies of test results for hazards in the workplace.
Q 13According to OSHA, daily US worker deaths fell from about 38 in 1970 to how many in 2023?
15
Injury and illness rates fell too, from 10.9 incidents per 100 workers in 1972 to 2.4 per 100 in 2023, even as the workforce roughly doubled.
Q 21Under OSHA's ladder rule, the base-to-support distance should be what fraction of the ladder's working length?
One-quarter
That is the '4 to 1' rule: for every four feet of height, the base sits one foot out, giving an angle of about 75 degrees.
Q 22OSHA's permissible exposure limit for workplace noise over an 8-hour day is what?
90 dBA
A hearing conservation program, with monitoring and free hearing protection, kicks in earlier, at 85 dBA; the CDC estimates 22 million US workers face damaging noise each year.
Q 23At what 8-hour average noise level must a general-industry employer start a hearing conservation program?
85 dBA
The program includes noise monitoring, annual audiograms and training; the permissible exposure limit itself is 5 decibels higher.
Q 14How many fatal work injuries did the US record in 2023?
About 5,300
That is 3.5 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers; transportation incidents are consistently the largest single category.
Q 15Which standard topped OSHA's list of most frequently cited violations for fiscal year 2024?
Fall Protection
Fall protection has led the list for more than a decade; hazard communication and lockout/tagout followed in second and third.
Q 16OSHA says the leading cause of death in construction is what?
Falls
In 2024, 389 of 1,034 construction fatalities were falls to a lower level, which is why OSHA runs an annual National Safety Stand-Down on the subject.
Q 17At what height above a lower level does OSHA require fall protection for construction workers on an unprotected edge?
6 feet
That is 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(1); scaffolds and steel erection have their own, higher thresholds.
Q 18In US general industry (not construction), fall protection is required at edges how far above a lower level?
4 feet
The general industry rule is 1910.28; the difference between 4 and 6 feet is one of the most common toolbox-talk questions.
Q 19OSHA requires the top rail of a guardrail system to be how high above the walking surface?
42 inches, plus or minus 3
Midrails go halfway, and the whole system must withstand 200 pounds of force applied downward or outward at the top edge.
Q 20When a portable ladder is used to reach an upper landing, how far must its side rails extend above the landing?
At least 3 feet
Non-self-supporting ladders should also lean at roughly a 4-to-1 ratio: the foot one-quarter of the working length out from the wall.
Q 24Under the Hazard Communication Standard, Safety Data Sheets must follow a format with how many sections?
16
The 2012 update replaced free-form Material Safety Data Sheets with the fixed layout and standardised pictograms and signal words on labels.
Q 25OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard was aligned in 2012 with which international chemical labelling scheme?
The GHS
The alignment brought the red-bordered diamond pictograms and the signal words 'Danger' and 'Warning' onto US chemical labels.
Q 26OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.147, better known as lockout/tagout, deals with what?
Controlling hazardous energy during servicing
Electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical and thermal energy all count; the standard is routinely in OSHA's top three most-cited.
Q 27By OSHA's definition, a confined space has limited means of entry or exit and is not designed for what?
Continuous occupancy
Tanks, silos, manholes, pits and ductwork all qualify; a space becomes 'permit-required' if it can also contain a hazardous atmosphere, engulf an entrant or trap someone in converging walls.
Q 28Which of these would make a confined space 'permit-required' under OSHA rules?
It could contain a hazardous atmosphere
Engulfment hazards, inward-converging walls and any other recognised serious hazard also trigger the permit requirement.
Q 29OSHA requires no trench protective system in stable rock or when a trench is shallower than what depth?
5 feet
Below that, employers must slope, bench, shore or shield; OSHA notes that one cubic yard of soil can weigh as much as a car.
Q 30OSHA requires excavated soil and equipment to be kept at least how far back from the edge of a trench?
2 feet
Spoil piles add weight to the trench wall and can roll in; a retaining device is the alternative to distance.