Physical Hazards Examples: Common Risks in the Workplace

In workplace safety, a physical hazard is an environmental agent, factor, or condition that can cause harm. Physical hazards examples range from loud noise to electricity or machinery.

In this article, we’ll discuss physical hazards, including what distinguishes them from chemical or biological hazards, other examples of physical hazards, their risks, their prevention methods, and how OSHA safety awareness courses online can help.

Table of Contents

• What Are Physical Hazards? 
• What Are Examples of Physical Hazards? 
• Common Physical Hazards in the Workplace 
• Physical Hazards Examples by Industry 
• How to Identify Physical Hazards 
• How to Control Physical Hazards 
• OSHA Requirements for Physical Hazards 
• Reduce Workplace Hazards With Safety Training by OSHA.com 

What Are Physical Hazards?

If the physical hazard definition above, an environmental agent, factor, or condition that can cause harm, sounds vague, that’s because it is.

The physical hazards category is more or less a catchall for hazards that don’t belong in one of the more narrowly defined workplace hazard categories, which include:

• Chemical Hazards, which result from exposure to harmful substances in solid, liquid, gas, vapor, mist, fume, or dust form, through breathing, skin or eye contact, swallowing, or accidental injection.
• Biological Hazards, or biohazards, are living organisms (or materials that come from living organisms) that can cause illness, infection, allergic reactions, or other health effects. This category includes viruses, bacteria, fungi/mold, potentially infectious bodily fluids, animal waste, contaminated food, and toxins or allergens.
• Ergonomic Hazards, which are work conditions, tasks, or equipment designs that strain the body and can lead to musculoskeletal disorders .
• Psychosocial Hazards, which are aspects of work organization, management, or social interactions that can cause stress, strain, interpersonal conflict, or harm to mental health. Examples include excessive workloads, unrealistic deadlines, and workplace violence.

When you take these categories into account, a more accurate physical hazard definition would be something like “an environmental agent, factor, or condition (excluding chemical, biological, ergonomic, or psychosocial hazards) that can cause harm.”

While some definitions go on to say “when they come in contact with the body,” some physical hazards don’t require contact to be harmful. If asked to list three examples of physical hazards that cause injury without contact, you could argue that excessive noise, radiation, and extreme temperatures all qualify.

What Are Examples of Physical Hazards?

What are the most common examples of physical hazards in the workplace?

According to workplace injury statistics , the most common physical hazards examples include:

• Excessive noise
• Vibration
• Extreme temperatures
• Radiation
• Electricity
• Machinery or moving parts
• Slips, trips, and falls
• Falling objects
• Confined spaces
• Fire and explosions

Common Physical Hazards in the Workplace

Let’s take a closer look at each of those common physical hazards workplace examples.

Excessive Noise

Excessive noise can damage the delicate structures of the inner ear, causing symptoms like temporary threshold shifts, permanent noise-induced hearing loss, or tinnitus. Loud noises (or the damage they cause) can create further hazards by causing communication failures and a greater chance of other accidents.

OSHA’s General Industry standard sets permissible exposure limit (PEL) for both prolonged and impulsive or impact noise.

Vibration

Vibration hazards occur when powered equipment transfers repeated motion to the body, which can cause numbness, tingling, joint or nerve damage, and fatigue.

Workers may encounter Hand-Arm Vibration (HAV) from tools like grinders, drills, impact wrenches, chainsaws, and sanders. HAV can cause reduced grip strength, Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS), and "vibration white finger" (Raynaud’s syndrome). Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) affects workers operating powered industrial trucks, heavy equipment , and other vehicles, and it often manifests as chronic lower back pain and spinal damage.

OSHA doesn’t have a specific vibration standard. They regulate workplace vibration hazards under the General Duty Clause and expect employers to meet industry standards to protect workers.

Extreme Temperatures

While extreme temperatures may not be top of mind when you list examples of physical hazards, they directly account for 53 reported deaths of U.S. workers in 2024. When you take into account unreported incidents and those where extreme heat was just a contributing factor, workers’ rights organizations estimate that the number may be ten times that.

Extreme heat can cause heat rash, dehydration, cramps, heat syncope, heat exhaustion, and potentially fatal heat stroke. Cold exposure can lead to frostbite, hypothermia, reduced dexterity, and impaired judgment. Both can increase the likelihood of other accidents.

Some state plans, like Cal-OSHA, have specific heat standards. Federally, it’s regulated under the General Duty Clause.

Radiation

Radiation hazards – which transfer energy into body tissue – include non-ionizing radiation (like UV light, lasers, radiofrequency energy, and infrared heat) and ionizing radiation (like X-rays, gamma rays, and radioactive materials). UV exposure can burn skin, several types of non-ionizing radiation can damage the eyes, and ionizing radiation can damage tissue and DNA, causing radiation burns, cataracts, reproductive harm, and cancer.

OSHA has an ionizing-radiation standard that sets exposure limits and requires a monitoring program as well as controls and training.

Electricity

Roughly 130-140 fatal workplace exposures to electricity occur every year. Electrical hazards include electric shock, electrocution, arc flash, arc blast, electrical burns, and fires or explosions caused by faulty wiring or energized equipment.

Frequent sources include contact with overhead power lines, missing or defective grounding, inadequate ground-fault protection, damaged cords, improper use of extension cords, and performing maintenance or repairs on energized equipment.

OSHA requires a range of preventative measures to reduce or eliminate electrical hazards, but perhaps the most important is regular completion of an electrical safety training course so that workers understand how to protect themselves.

Machinery and Moving Parts

Machinery and moving parts create many different physical hazards, including caught-in, crushed-by, cut, amputation, entanglement, and struck-by hazards. In 2024, OSHA reported almost 2500 amputations as a result of machinery and equipment hazards.

OSHA’s machine guarding requirements address these hazards, and so does the lockout/tagout standard . It’s also important for workers to complete a machine guarding safety course so they understand why machine guarding mechanisms are important and continue to use them properly.

Slips, Trips, and Falls

Slips, trips, and falls caused 844 workplace deaths in the U.S. in 2024; the majority were falls to a lower level, but roughly one in five were on the same level. Slips, trips, and falls can also cause sprains, fractures, and head injuries.

OSHA has separate fall standards for Construction and General Industry. Our most thorough class for construction is 24-hour fall prevention training online , targeted at supervisors overseeing fall protection programs and workers who often perform tasks at elevated heights.

Falling Objects

Falling object hazards happen when tools, materials, or debris drop from a shelf, crane, scaffold, forklift, elevated platform, or construction work area. Falling objects can cause head trauma, eye injuries, fractures, crush injuries, and fatalities.

While hard hats can reduce head injury risks, they aren’t a substitute for control measures like securing objects at height, preventing people from entering drop zones, and using debris nets and toe boards.

Confined Spaces

Confined spaces are large enough for workers to enter and perform work, have limited means of entry or exit, and aren’t designed for continued occupancy. The cramped quarters and poor ventilation can magnify any hazards already present in the space, especially atmospheric hazards.

That’s why OSHA requires a permitting system for some confined spaces, as well as extra precautions. Check out our article on confined space hazards , where you can learn about examples of physical hazards you should be aware of.

We offer confined spaces entry training that can benefit entrants, attendants, supervisors, and more.

Fire and Explosions

There were 93 workplace fatalities in the U.S. in 2024 from fires and explosions. Conditions that increase the risk of fires or explosions include flammable liquids, gases, or vapors, combustible dust, batteries, hot work, static electricity, electrical faults, and pressurized systems.

Potential injuries include burns, smoke inhalation, blast injuries, traumatic injuries, and death. Explosions can also cause structural collapse or the release of hazardous chemicals.

Physical Hazards Examples by Industry

Here are a few physical hazards examples faced by various industries.

How to Identify Physical Hazards

It’s best to rely on a variety of physical hazard identification methods like the ones below. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses, but together, they can give you a full picture of the hazards you need to control.

• Workplace Inspection . Perform a systematic, planned examination of work areas, equipment, tools, storage areas, and work practices. It can be a good idea to bring in help with safety expertise. OSHA offers risk-free consulting services for small businesses, and safety consultants can be hired by bigger firms. This gives you the big picture, but is cumbersome enough that it can’t be used frequently.
• Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) . Sometimes called Job Safety Analysis (JSA) or Activity Hazard Analysis (AHA) , JHA breaks a job into its steps – as they’re being performed on the ground – and identifies what could go wrong at each step. This is a versatile process that’s useful for new and established safety programs.
• Employee Reporting . Workers are often the first to recognize new hazards, and this is only truer in a well-trained workforce. An effective reporting program lets employees report unsafe conditions, near misses, equipment defects, exposure symptoms, or suggestions without fear of retaliation. Taking swift corrective action is also necessary if you want employee reporting to persist.
• Incident Reviews . Any time there’s an injury, illness, property damage, or near miss , you should investigate the underlying causes. Avoid assigning blame; a constructive approach is to determine what made the incident possible and how it can be prevented from happening again.
• Exposure Monitoring . Physical, chemical, or biological hazards that workers encounter should be measured whenever possible to ensure you’re meeting safety targets. Examples of physical hazards that should be monitored include noise, heat stress, air sampling for dusts, vapors, gases, or aerosols, radiation, vibration measurements, and lighting, ventilation, and indoor-air measurements where conditions may impact visibility, comfort, or health.

How to Control Physical Hazards

When you’re putting controls for physical hazards in place, you should follow the hierarchy for hazard control as a best practice. Not only is it a widely accepted safety practice, but OSHA uses it when determining whether hazards are properly controlled.

The hierarchy is:

1. Elimination . Whenever practically feasible, you should eliminate a hazard entirely. For example, you might eliminate the use of sharp cutting tools by purchasing materials that come in the necessary size.
2. Substitution . When feasible, you should substitute the hazardous substance, activity, or equipment for one that is less hazardous.
3. Engineering Controls . Engineering controls separate workers from the hazard through the use of machines, equipment, barriers, or workspace design. Engineering controls are preferred because they don’t rely on workers remembering to take certain actions.
4. Administrative Controls . Administrative controls are procedures, processes, or warning systems that increase safety. Examples include operating procedures, equipment inspections, limits on exposure time, alarms, warning signs, labels, checklists, lockout/tagout, and the buddy system.
5. Personal Protective Equipment . PPE can be used to minimize exposure to hazards, but only when all four other controls have been feasibly exhausted. It’s the control of last resort. Employers not only have to provide PPE free of cost, but they should also provide personal protective equipment (PPE) training , fit testing, and regular inspections to maximize the PPE’s effectiveness.

You’ll notice the reliance on feasibility in the hierarchy. At each stage of hazard control, you can and should consider feasibility. When a feasible control is:

• Suitable for the hazard,
• Appropriate to the risk level,
• Consistent with regulations,
• Not too burdensome to workers,
• Effective and reliable,
• Readily available, and
• Cost-effective in both the short and long terms.

You move down the levels of the hierarchy by feasibility, and when you find a feasible solution, you ask, “Have I eliminated the chance of harm entirely?” If the answer is no, you keep going until you’ve sufficiently eliminated the hazard or hit the bottom of the list.

OSHA Requirements for Physical Hazards

Since there are so many types and examples of physical hazards OSHA addresses each through narrow standards rather than trying to fit everything under a universal “physical hazard” standard. Most are General Industry standards under 29 CFR 1910, but Construction sometimes has its own version that takes precedence.

Relevant standards include:

OSHA Outreach training courses are a great way to get a thorough primer on the physical hazards in your industry.

Reduce Workplace Hazards with Safety Training by OSHA.com

Physical hazards are a broad category. They exist in every workplace, and every employer must devote themselves to mitigating physical hazards. Not only does OSHA require it, but physical hazard mitigation saves an employer time and money by eliminating medical bills and other compensation, as well as lost productivity, property damage, product damage, and more.

Thankfully, compliant and effective safety training doesn’t have to be difficult for employers. Providing hazard-specific education related to each worker’s job duties is as easy as using our online safety and health programs . As an OSHA-authorized training provider, our courses are self-paced and available on any device. We offer training on a huge variety of hazards across multiple industries. Workers will learn how to recognize hazards, how to keep themselves safe, and the OSHA requirements they must comply with.

Our business solutions make training even easier for employers by providing a free learning management system, dedicated account support, and incentivized pricing.