AI exposure: Occupational Health and Safety Specialists
Review, evaluate, and analyze work environments and design programs and procedures to control, eliminate, and prevent disease or injury caused by chemical, physical, and biological agents or ergonomic factors. May conduct inspections and enforce adherence to laws and regulations governing the health and safety of individuals. May be employed in the public or private sector.
Reading this score
computedAt 22.0% of weighted task load, Occupational Health and Safety Specialists sits at the 41th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 53.6% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is verification cost. Across this occupation's 22 tasks it averages 2.31 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, checking the output costs more than producing it. Where an undetected error is expensive, dangerous or irreversible, the economics change. Someone has to verify the work, and verifying can cost as much as doing it. This is the friction most likely to fall as tools for checking improve.
The most exposed thing this job does is Write reports, at 73.3%. The least is Prepare hazardous, radioactive, or mixed waste samples for transportation or storage by..., at 0.0%. A gap of 73.3% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within life, physical and social science occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 36.3% across the group's 60 roles, with 50 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 22 tasks, 6 are currently banded exposed, 5 assisted and 11 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 1.80 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.73 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.18 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.88 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.81 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.31 | 0-3 |
Task by task
22 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Write reports. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.91 | exposed |
| Analyze incident data to identify trends in injuries, illnesses, accidents, or other hazards. | 46.7% | 28.3% | 25.0% | 3.65 | exposed |
| Develop or maintain hygiene programs, such as noise surveys, continuous atmosphere monitoring, ventilation surveys, or asbestos management plans. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.41 | exposed |
| Develop or maintain medical monitoring programs for employees. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.44 | exposed |
| Recommend measures to help protect workers from potentially hazardous work methods, processes, or materials. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.57 | exposed |
| Maintain or update emergency response plans or procedures. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.61 | exposed |
| Provide new-employee health and safety orientations and develop materials for these presentations. | 37.5% | 37.5% | 25.0% | 3.74 | assisted |
| Conduct safety training or education programs and demonstrate the use of safety equipment. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.96 | assisted |
| Coordinate "right-to-know" programs regarding hazardous chemicals or other substances. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.60 | assisted |
| Collaborate with engineers or physicians to institute control or remedial measures for hazardous or potentially hazardous conditions or equipment. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 4.09 | assisted |
| Maintain inventories of hazardous materials or hazardous wastes, using waste tracking systems to ensure that materials are handled properly. | 13.8% | 23.8% | 62.5% | 3.43 | untouched |
| Perform laboratory analyses or physical inspections of samples to detect disease or to assess purity or cleanliness. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 3.07 | assisted |
| Order suspension of activities that pose threats to workers' health or safety. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.41 | untouched |
| Investigate accidents to identify causes or to determine how such accidents might be prevented in the future. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.32 | untouched |
| Investigate health-related complaints and inspect facilities to ensure that they comply with public health legislation and regulations. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 3.95 | untouched |
| Collect samples of hazardous materials or arrange for sample collection. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 3.24 | untouched |
| Inspect or evaluate workplace environments, equipment, or practices to ensure compliance with safety standards and government regulations. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.13 | untouched |
| Investigate the adequacy of ventilation, exhaust equipment, lighting, or other conditions that could affect employee health, comfort, or performance. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.00 | untouched |
| Inspect specified areas to ensure the presence of fire prevention equipment, safety equipment, or first-aid supplies. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 3.76 | untouched |
| Conduct audits at hazardous waste sites or industrial sites or participate in hazardous waste site investigations. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 3.47 | untouched |
| Collect samples of dust, gases, vapors, or other potentially toxic materials for analysis. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.09 | untouched |
| Prepare hazardous, radioactive, or mixed waste samples for transportation or storage by treating, compacting, packaging, and labeling them. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.23 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.