Must an employer in the United States appoint a safety professional or an occupational physician?

No. Federal OSHA law has no general duty to appoint a safety professional, a safety service or an occupational physician, and no staffing ratio linked to the number of workers. Instead, individual standards require named competences for particular tasks, and employers must have medical advice and first aid available.

Short answer

• No headcount rule: unlike the EU and Türkiye, there is no threshold at which a safety specialist or company doctor becomes mandatory.
• Medical advice and first aid (1910.151): medical personnel must be readily available for advice on plant health; if there is no infirmary, clinic or hospital in near proximity, someone must be adequately trained in first aid, with first aid supplies at hand.
• Task competences: many standards require a "competent person" or "qualified person", for example construction site inspections (1926.20(b)(2)) or, where hazardous locations are classified by zones, a qualified registered professional engineer supervising the classification and the equipment selection (1910.307(g)(4)).
• Health professionals for specific standards: medical evaluations are done by a physician or other licensed health care professional (PLHCP); audiograms by an audiologist, otolaryngologist or physician, or a technician under their responsibility.
• States: check State Plan rules; California, for example, requires a named person responsible for the written Injury and Illness Prevention Program.

Why the US system works differently

The OSH Act puts the result on the employer (a workplace free from recognised serious hazards and compliance with each standard) without prescribing the organisation that delivers it. The EU Framework Directive and Türkiye's Law No. 6331 take the opposite route: they require the employer to designate workers or use protective and preventive services, and in Türkiye (Law No. 6331 Art. 6) to assign or contract an occupational safety specialist (iş güvenliği uzmanı) and a workplace physician (işyeri hekimi) for every workplace. The Turkish exceptions are narrow: a suitably qualified and certified employer may take on the service himself, and in less hazardous workplaces with fewer than 50 workers the employer may run it after Ministry training, except for the medical examinations.

In the US the duty to use a particular professional appears only where a standard says so. The most common cases are:

What employers do in practice

Many medium and large US employers employ safety and health professionals and contract occupational health clinics, because the written programmes, exposure monitoring, medical evaluations and training required by the standards cannot be managed without them. Professional certifications are common in job adverts, but the law does not require a particular title or certificate for a general safety role.

Common mistakes

• Concluding that nobody is needed. The tasks that require a PLHCP, a competent person or a trained first aider still have to be covered.
• Confusing "competent person" with a job title. It means a person with the knowledge and the authority the standard requires for that task, not the holder of a general certificate.
• Ignoring state rules. A State Plan may require a named responsible person or committee even where federal law does not.

Related on excodex

• Occupational safety and health in United States: law, authorities and employer duties
• Are pre-employment and periodic medical examinations required in the United States?
• Is a safety committee or a worker safety representative required in the United States?
• OSH law compared: appointments, committees and reporting deadlines

Standards and further reading

• 29 CFR 1910.151 Medical services and first aid: https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.151
• 29 CFR 1910.134 Respiratory protection: https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.134
• 29 CFR 1910.95 Occupational noise exposure: https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.95
• OSHA 3162, Medical Screening and Surveillance Requirements in OSHA Standards: https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/osha3162.pdf

This article is general occupational safety and health information prepared by the excodex editorial team. It does not replace the applicable legislation, standards, manufacturers' instructions or the assessment of a competent OSH professional or occupational physician.