What is OSH Literacy?

OSH literacy is the ability to find, understand, and use safety and health information to stay safe. It covers topics like fire safety, electrical safety, chemical safety, and more. Think of it as a life skill that helps you identify and avoid hazards in any situation.

Why is OSH Literacy Important?

• Most accidents are preventable: Poor communication and human error cause the majority of accidents at work and in everyday life.
• Injuries and fatalities are a serious issue: Millions of people die each year from preventable accidents and illnesses in work, public spaces and at home. Children are especially vulnerable.
• Everyone has the right to safety: OSH literacy empowers people to protect themselves and others.
• It’s a global need: OSH literacy is essential for everyone, everywhere.

We’re Making a Difference

OSH literacy is a non-profit, advocacy organization dedicated to improving safety and health, especially for vulnerable groups, through education. Although small in size, we have worked with many different local, regional national and international institutions, businesses and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to raise awareness and to make safety information accessible to all.

Key Milestones:

• 2024 – present: OSH literacy’s campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of accredited (unregulated) workplace Safety, Health and Wellbeing (SHW) credentials and services and those who sell them, is beginning to get results. Watch out for upcoming articles and features on the topic in the media.
• 2023 – present: Call for better regulation and quality in free OSH resources. A 2023 peer-reviewed academic study on free education and training OSH resources available on YouTube, found that over 63% were poor quality. Around 68% of these poor-quality resources had been uploaded by businesses or professional OSH organisations. These mainly came from the UK, USA and Australia. EU- OSHA’s notoriously bad ‘Napo for Teachers’ (NFT) cartoons were not included in this study as it also focused on spoken information. Only seven (7) organisations globally still have links to NFT on their sites.
• June 2023: ISO published Plain Language Guidelines, making OSH information easier to understand for which we advocated for a number of years.
• June 2022: The ILO recognized OSH as a fundamental right for workers.
• May 2020: OSH literacy is nominated for the UNESCO World Literacy Award by the UNESCO Office in Ireland run by the Irish Department of Education.
• Sept’ 2017: ISSA launched the Global Vision Zero programme at the World OSH Conference in Singapore. Dave Magee attended and is named as one of the ‘people behind Vision Zero’ for his campaign to make OSH accessible to all.

OSH Literacy® is a protected term, registered by OSHLiteracy.org to prevent commercialization. All our services and resources are free, open access, and non-profit. Any individual or organization is free to use OSH Literacy as a term, idea, or resource, provided it is not for profit. If you see ‘OSH Literacy’ being exploited commercially, please report it to us. Together, we can protect and promote OSH as a free and universal human right.

Join us in making the world a safer place!