occupational safety and health occupational safety and health occupational safety and health (osh), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (ohs), occupational health, or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work (i.e. in an occupation). these terms also refer to the goals of this field, so their use in the sense of this article was originally an abbreviation of occupational safety and health program/department etc.