• Multiple agencies regulate every aspect of acquisition, use and disposal of all hazardous materials.
  
• Federal and state agencies have established detailed safety guidelines for the use of tools, equipment, machinery.
  
• Potential electrical, physical, mechanical or operational safety hazards have been identified and appropriate regulations have been enacted to cover worker safety.

Many of these regulations have mandated changes in work practices, better safety equipment, redesigned equipment safety features, training or other preventive measures. The result of these regulations has been a substantial drop in the instances of injury or adverse health effect on the employees.

However, as the job market has shifted from heavy manufacturing to a light manufacturing and service industry, so have some of the employee health and safety issues. In the modern workplace one of the new worker injury categories is ergonomics related. In fact the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has stated that finding solutions to the problems posed by ergonomic hazards may be the most significant workplace safety and health issue in the 1990s.