Health Hazard Evaluations – FAQs

If you are currently an employer, employee, or union official in a workplace where employees’ health and well-being is affected by the workplace you can request a health hazard evaluation. If a field investigation is needed, we will evaluate the current workplace conditions and employee health concerns and make recommendations on how to reduce or eliminate any identified hazards.
Otherwise, we will send you information or refer you to another agency.
Requests can be made in writing or online at https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hhe/request.html.

Our staff has experience with many types of hazards. These include chemicals, particulates, noise, radiation, biological agents, ergonomics, heat, and stress. For chemicals and other substances, we can look at exposures that people breathe in and exposures that get into the body through the skin.

Yes, our staff will not disclose the name of the employees who request the evaluation to the employer when that choice is marked on the request form. NIOSH also protects individually identifiable medical information according to federal law. If you have concerns or questions about confidentiality please call 1-513-841-4382 to speak with a member of our staff.

The evaluation is done at no cost to the employer or employees.

Once the evaluation is complete, a report is prepared and sent to the employer and employee representatives. Employees can request a copy of the report by emailing us at [email protected] or by calling 513-841-4382. Most reports are also posted on our website (https://www2a.cdc.gov/hhe/search.asp) and are sent to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the relevant state health departments.

NIOSH is not an enforcement agency for workplace standards, so recommended changes do not have to be made. However, our experience has shown that many employers address problems identified in our reports to improve the health and safety of their workforce.

Call 1-513-841-4382 or send an email to [email protected] and our staff will respond.

This email feature should be used when:

• you have concerns about whether or not to make a request
• you are having technical problems filling out the request form on the website
• you are an employee at a company evaluated and you want a copy of the report
• there is no link to a report provided in the results from the search function on our website
• you would like to find out the name of a company evaluated in a report released after November 2010
• you would like to know if an evaluation has been done at a specific company and can’t find that information through the search function on our website

You can get copies of most reports online by using the search function located here: https://www2a.cdc.gov/hhe/search.asp. You can search by hazard, health effect, city, state, investigation number, or company name (for reports released before November 2010). The search engine will pull up all reports that fit your search criteria. If the report is available electronically, you can click on a link that will provide an abstract and link to the report.

If there is no link to the report, you can send an email with the company name and location or the investigation number (known now as the HHE number and in the past as the HETA number) to [email protected] and we will get you a copy of the report.

Reports released before November 2010 have the company name listed on the cover of the final report and identify the company by name throughout the final report.

Reports released after November 2010 do not have the company name listed in the final report. If you would like to find out the name of the company evaluated please send an email to [email protected].

Yes. You can search online by company name for reports released before November 2010. To find out if an evaluation has been done at a specific company after this date, send an email to [email protected].