or serious physical harm. . ."to the employees, and (2) ". . .comply 
with occupational safety and health standards promulgated under this 
Act." The aforesaid Act gives OSHA broad power to enforce compliance 
with the Act, including a right of entry, authority to require record- 
keeping and reports, and sanctions. In addition, the Act specifically 
directs that trade secret information shall be treated by OSHA as 
confidential. 
The term "employer" is defined in such a way, however, as to 
exclude States and their political subdivisions, as well as the United 
States. The Act contains a separate provision requiring Federal agencies 
to follow OSHA standards, but States and their subdivisions are subject 
to OSHA requirements only by voluntary agreement on the part of each 
State. Only 24 States have so agreed and there is no immediate expec- 
tation that this number will increase. Hence, such organizations as 
State universities in 26 States are not subject to OSHA requirements. 
In addition, OSHA has authority only in cases where an employment 
relationship exists. Hence, it could not prevent a self-employed 
person from conducting recombinant DNA research as long as no employees 
would thereby be affected. 
Turning to the requirements themselves, since recombinant DNA 
research does not necessarily present a "recognized hazard" with 
respect to all areas of that research, and because of possible liti- 
gation problems in proving a recognized hazard, the imposition of 
all NIH Guidelines on employers can best be achieved by adopting them 
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