Workplace Safety and OSHA Requirements

With increased regulatory scrutiny and persistent staffing shortages, veterinary practices are under growing pressure to maintain safe, compliant workplaces. From animal handling and sharps injuries to chemical exposure and documentation gaps, OSHA requirements touch nearly every corner of a clinic’s daily operations.

Therefore, for distributors and suppliers serving veterinary customers, understanding these challenges and how products and training solutions fit into compliance efforts is critical.

A recurring issue across practices is inconsistent implementation of OSHA standards, often tied to limited or outdated training.

“Anecdotally, based on conversations and comments from veterinary technician colleagues, I think the top safety issues would stem from inconsistent implementation of OSHA standards,” said Beckie Mossor, president of the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America (NAVTA). “The primary cause is likely limited training on OSHA standards.”

Staffing shortages only make the problem worse. After all, when clinics are stretched too thin, safety protocols often slip, not because teams don’t care, but because time pressures encourage shortcuts.

Mossor said understaffing can lead to inconsistent PPE use, delayed sharps disposal and lapses in chemical handling and disinfectant procedures.

“It’s easy to see how staffing shortages would be a root cause for many preventable safety issues,” she said.

High-risk activities remain a daily reality in clinics

From an OSHA perspective, many of the compliance gaps seen in veterinary practices are not complex or obscure. Robert Szafranski, a spokesperson for the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), said most OSHA citations involve basic training and documentation issues that are readily fixable.

“Chemical safety — including hazard communication programs, proper labeling, maintaining safety data sheets and employee training — is the most common area for improvement,” he said. “Eye and face protection related to chemical use is frequently cited, but these are easily addressed once staff understands the requirements.”

Both NAVTA and AVMA point to animal-related injuries as a persistent risk area. Bites, scratches and handling-related strains remain among the most common workplace injuries in veterinary medicine.

Mark Harrison, a partner at Certified Safety Training (CST), noted animal injuries are far and away the highest risk he sees across the industry.

“Depending on the size of the animal, you can have some pretty serious injuries,” Harrison said, noting incidents ranging from minor bites to concussions caused by large animals such as horses.

He added that sharps injuries and needle sticks are also common in fast-moving clinical environments, along with chemical and biological hazards from pharmaceuticals and disinfectants.

Despite these risks, there are areas where veterinary practices have made meaningful progress.

Szafranski said improvements in radiation safety, OSHA recordkeeping, fire safety and early behavioral intervention with patients show that training investments do pay off.

“These improvements demonstrate that when practices prioritize training, real change happens,” he said.

Products and training work best when integrated

Where gaps remain, training depth is often the issue. Mossor noted technicians frequently report feeling underprepared in areas such as chemical safety, safety data sheet (SDS) literacy, spill response and hazardous drug handling. Variability between practices can be significant, especially when it comes to chemotherapy drugs and other high-risk substances.

“Technicians keep telling us they want more structured, hands-on, recurring safety training — not just one time or online modules,” Mossor said.

Harrison agreed that training must be practical and embedded into daily workflows, particularly for small or leanly staffed teams. However, shutting down a clinic for half a day of safety training is rarely realistic, so resources need to be accessible on demand.

“You want to make sure that safety is embedded in the work,” Harrison said. “Train at the initial time of assignment and make sure those resources are available 24/7 so safety becomes part of the culture instead of stopping the business from operating.”

That approach also applies to safety products. PPE, spill kits, disinfectants and sharps containers cannot be treated as stand-alone purchases. Harrison said staff must know where these items are, how to use them and how they connect to broader safety systems such as SDS management.

“All the safety data sheets tell you exactly what PPE you need for any given chemical and what the hazards are,” he said. “Making sure employees can access that information electronically is really key.”

Product selection becomes much easier when teams are trained to read SDS documents and manufacturer guidance. OSHA-aligned purchasing decisions follow naturally when staff understand the “why” behind requirements.

“For sharps containers, the requirements are simple: puncture-resistant, leakproof, properly labeled and never overfilled,” Szafranski said. “When teams understand that, compliance becomes second nature.”

After all, when training and products are aligned, compliance becomes easier to sustain. Properly sized PPE supports OSHA eye, face and chemical protection requirements; clearly labeled, puncture-resistant sharps containers reduce exposure risks and citations; and well-stocked spill kits enable faster, safer response to chemical incidents. Disinfectants selected with SDS guidance help ensure staff are using the right protection for the hazard at hand.

When these products are consistently available, easy to access and supported by clear training, clinics move from reactive compliance to proactive safety management.

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