Access toMedical

and ExposureRecords

U.S. Department of Labor

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

OSHA 3110

2020 (Revised)
This booklet provides a generic overview of a standardsrelated topic. This publication does not alter or determine 

compliance responsibilities, which are described in the 

OSHA standards and the Occupational Safety and Health 

Act. Because interpretations and enforcement policy may 

change over time, the best sources for additional 

guidance on OSHA compliance requirements are current 

administrative interpretations and decisions by the 

Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission and 

the courts. This publication is in the public domain and 

may be reproduced fully or partially without permission. 

Source credit is requested but not required.

OSHA will make this information available to sensory 

impaired individuals upon request. Call (202) 693-1999.
Whoshould read thisbooklet?

If you are an employee who has a possible exposure 

to or uses toxic substances or harmful physical 

agents at your work site or an employer who has 

employees that may be exposed, you need to know 

your rights and responsibilities under OSHA’s 

standard on Access to Employee Exposure and 

Medical Records [Title 29 of the Code of Federal 

Regulations (CFR) Part 1910.1020]. 1

If you are an employee who may have been 

exposed to toxic substances or harmful physical 

agents in the workplace, OSHA’s regulation may help 

you detect, prevent, and treat occupational disease.

You have the right to access relevant exposure and 

medical records and to know how OSHA’s standard 

covers you if you are any of the following:

■ A current or former employee who is or may have 

been exposed to toxic substances or harmful 

physical agents.

■ An employee who 

was assigned or 

transferred to work 

involving toxic 

substances or 

harmful physical 

agents.

■ The legal 

representative of a 

deceased or legally 

incapacitated 

employee who was 

or may have been 

exposed to toxic

substances or harmful 

physical agents.

Designated employee representatives may 

access employee medical or exposure records and 

analyses created from those records only in very 

specific circumstances. Designated employee 

representatives include any individual or organization 

to whom an employee has given written authorization 

to exercise a right of access.

1

Particular circumstances may vary for access to medical and exposure 

records. Refer to the provisions of the OSHA standard for specific 

information and requirements.
What typesof exposures should I 

beconcerned about?

The standard covers records documenting the amount 

of employee exposure to “toxic substances and harmful 

physical agents.” Toxic substances and harmful physical 

agents may include the following:2

■ Metals and dusts, such as, lead, cadmium, and silica.

■ Biological agents, such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi.

■ Physical stress, such as noise, heat, cold, vibration, 

repetitive motion, and ionizing and non-ionizing 

radiation.

What is“access”?

Access means the right to examine and copy medical 

and exposure records. As an employee, you have the 

right to access exposure and medical records and 

analyses based on these records that concern your 

employment. An employer must permit employees and, 

in certain circumstances their designated representatives, 

to access exposure and medical records relevant to the 

employee, free of charge, within a reasonable period of 

time. As an employee, you and your designated 

representatives may access your medical and exposure 

records in one of three ways:

■ The employer may give you a copy of the document,or

■ The employer may provide facilities for you to copy 

the document, or

■ The employer may loan you the document to copy it 

offsite.

2 According to OSHA’s regulation, “toxic substance or harmful physical 

agent” posing a hazard to human health must either (1) be listed in the 

latest edition of the NIOSH Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical 

Substances, (2) have yielded positive evidence of an acute or chronic 

health hazard in testing conducted by or known to the employer, or

(3) be the subject of a safety data sheet (SDS) kept by or known to 

the employer indicating that the material may pose a hazard to human 

health.

As an employee, what typesof 

records can Iaccess?

You may access any employee exposure records

that show the measuring or monitoring of your own 

exposure to a toxic substance or harmful physical agent. 

If your employer does not have any records that 

specifically chart your own exposure levels, you may 

access the exposure records of employees who engage 

in similar work or working conditions and may have 

experienced exposures similar to yours. Employee 

exposure records include the following:

■ Monitoring results of workplace air or measurements 

of toxic substances or harmful physical agents in the 

workplace, including personal, area, grab, wipe, or 

other forms of sampling results.

■ Biological monitoring results, such as blood and urine 

test results.

■ Safety data sheets (SDSs) containing information 

about a substance’s hazards to human health.

You also may access any employee medical records 

concerning your health status that were created or 

maintained by a physician, nurse, health care 

professional, or technician. Employee medical records 

include the following:

■ Medical and employment questionnaires or histories.

■ Results of medical examinations and laboratory tests.

■ Medical opinions, diagnoses, progress notes, and 

recommendations.

■ First-aid records.

■ Descriptions of treatments and prescriptions.

■ Employee medical complaints.

In addition, you may access any analyses —

compilations of data or statistical studies—of employee 

medical and exposure records that concern your working 

conditions or workplace. If an analysis includes 

information that could be used to directly or indirectly 

identify individual employees, however, the employer is 

required to remove these “identifiers” to the extent 

possible before permitting employee access to the 

analysis. Examples of identifiers include an employee’s 

name, address, social security number, and job title.
What typesof records can

a designated employee 

representativeaccess?

The OSHA standard recognizes two types of 

designated representatives: (1) an individual or 

organization to whom the employee has given written 

authorization to access his or her medical or exposure 

records, and (2) a recognized or certified collective 

bargaining agent. To access employee information, 

employee representatives must follow very specific 

requirements, such as the following:

■ Employee Exposure Records. Recognized or certified 

collective bargaining agents may access employee 

exposure records without individual employees’ 

written consent. The designated representative must 

request access in writing from the employer, however, 

and must specify the records to be disclosed and the 

occupational health need for accessing the records.

■ Employee Medical Records. Designated 

representatives may access the medical records of any 

employees who have given the representative specific 

written consent. As with employee access to medical 

records, access is limited to those records pertaining 

to the authorizing employees.

As an employer, what do I need 

to know about this standard?

If you are an employer, you must do the following:

■ Preserve and maintain accurate medical and exposure 

records for each employee.3

■ Inform workers of the existence, location, and 

availability of those medical and exposure records.

■ Give employees any informational material regarding 

this standard that OSHA makes available to you.

■ Make records available to employees, their designated 

representatives, and to OSHA, as required.

■ Analyses. For the purpose of analyses using exposure 

or medical records, recognized or certified collective 

bargaining agents may access the records without 

individual employee’s written consent. As with 

employee access, however, the employer must remove 

or prevent access to any information in these analyses 

that could reasonably be used to identify the individual 

employees whose records are the subject of the

analyses.

Do employers have to make all

Records available?

No. If you are an employer, the following are not 

considered “medical records” under this standard:

■ Physical specimens, such as blood and urine samples.

■ Records concerning health insurance claims if they 

are (1) maintained separately from your medical 

program and its records, and (2) not accessible by 

employee name or other personal identifier (e.g., 

social security number or home address).

3 The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), 42 U.S.C.

§12112(d)(3)(B)-(C) generally requires employers to keep employee 

medical information confidential. Equal Employment Opportunity 

Commission (EEOC) standards, however, do not prohibit employers 

from making the disclosures required by OSHA’s medical access 

standard. For further information on ADA standards regarding 

employee medical records, contact the EEOC at www.eeoc.gov.
■ Records created only for use in litigation that are 

privileged from discovery.

■ Records created as part of voluntary employee 

assistance programs, such as records for alcohol 

and drug abuse or personal counseling, if they are 

maintained separately from your medical program 

and its records.

■ Trade secret information involving manufacturing 

processes or a percentage of a chemical substance 

in a mixture, as long as you inform health 

professionals and employees and their designated 

representatives that you have deleted that 

information from medical and exposure records. If 

the exclusion of the trade secret information 

substantially impairs the evaluation of when and 

where the exposure occurred, however, you must 

provide alternative information to the employee 

consistent with the requirements of 29 CFR Part 

1910.1020.

What if I do not haveexposure 

records for a particular 

employee?

If you do not have 

exposure records that 

document the 

amount of a toxic 

substance or

harmful physical 

agent that the 

requesting 

employee has 

been exposed to, 

you must give the 

requesting 

employee the 

records of other

employees (with personal identifiers removed) with 

similar duties or working conditions that reasonably 

indicate the amount and nature of exposures the 

employee requesting the records may have had.

You also may be required to supply exposure 

records that reasonably indicate the amount and 

nature of toxic substances or harmful physical 

agents at a particular workplace, or used in a 

specific working condition, to which the requesting 

employee is being assigned or transferred.
30

yea

r

30 years

30 years

30 years

How long do I have to keep 

employee exposure and 

medical records and other 

exposure information?

Unless another OSHA rule specifically provides a 

different period of time, you must keep the 

following:

■ Employee medical records for at least the duration

of the employee’s employment plus 30 years,

except for

❖ Health insurance claims records that you

maintain separately from your medical program

and its records.

❖ First-aid records made onsite by a non-physician

of one-time treatment and later observations of

minor scratches, scrapes, or other injuries that did

not involve medical treatment, loss of

consciousness, restriction of work or motion, or

transfer to another job.

❖ Medical records of employees who have worked

for less than 1 year as long as you offer all such

records to the employee upon termination of

employment.

■ Employee exposure records for at least 30 years,

except for

❖ Background data related to environmental, or

workplace, monitoring or measuring—such as

laboratory reports and worksheets—must only

be retained for 1 year, so long as you preserve

certain interpretive documents relevant to the

interpretation of the data for 30 years.

❖ SDSs and other specified records concerning the

identity of a substance or agent, so long as you

keep some record of the identity, preferably the

chemical name and information on when and

where it was used, for 30 years.

❖ Biological monitoring results designated as

exposure records by specific OSHA standards shall 

be preserved and maintained as required by the 

specific standard governing their use.

❖ Analyses using medical or exposure records for at

least 30 years. 
What if I go out of business?

If you go out of business, you must do the following:

■ Transfer all records subject to this standard to the

successor employer OR, if there is no successor,

■ Notify current employees at least 3 months before the

business closes of their right to access their records.

You also must either transfer the records required to

be preserved under this standard to the National

Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

(NIOSH), or notify the Director of NIOSH in writing

of your intent to dispose of the records 3 months

before that disposal.

Doesthe standard cover me if I 

work or run a businessin astate 

that operatesitsown jobsafety 

plan?

Yes. OSHA requires states with their own safety and 

health programs to have rules and enforcement 

programs that are at least as effective as those of the 

federal program

■ If you are an employee in an OSHA-approved state

plan, you have the same rights as employees in states

under federal OSHA jurisdiction, but your state plan

may have additionalrequirements.

■ If you are an employer in a state plan, you have at

least the same responsibilities and rights as employers

in states under federal OSHA jurisdiction, but your

state plan may have additional requirements.

For more information on state plans, contact the state 

plan in your state or visit OSHA’s website at

www.osha.gov.

How can I get assistance or more 

information about OSHA and its 

requirements?

OSHA operates technical assistance, training and 

education, and consultation programs to help 

employers and employees understand rules and their 

requirements.

In addition, OSHA’s website—www.osha.gov—

contains information on agency programs, activities, 

policies, rules, training and education, outreach, and 

more. For a list of available publications and 

information on OSHA electronic products, visit the 

website.

For more information about Access to Employee 

Exposure and Medical Records, see Standards on 

OSHA’s website, or contact your nearest OSHA 

Regional or Area Office.

To file a complaint, report an emergency, or seek OSHA 

advice, assistance, or products, call 1-800-321-OSHA or 

your nearest regional office. The teletypewriter (TTY) 

number is 1-877-889-5627.