According to OSHA’s hazard communication framework, chemical hazards are broadly grouped into two main types: physical hazards and health hazards.

  • Physical hazards are chemicals that can cause dangerous physical events such as fires, explosions, or violent reactions. Examples include flammable liquids and gases, oxidizers, explosives, and reactive or pyrophoric substances that can ignite or explode under certain conditions.
  • Health hazards are chemicals that can cause adverse health effects when they enter or contact the body, whether through inhalation, ingestion, or skin/eye contact. This category covers acute toxicity, skin corrosion or irritation, serious eye damage, respiratory or skin sensitization, carcinogenicity, reproductive toxicity, mutagenicity, and specific target organ toxicity.

Many OSHA and training resources then expand on these two core types by describing common subcategories (flammable, corrosive, toxic, reactive, irritant, environmental hazard, etc.), but they are all nested under those two primary OSHA hazard groupings of physical and health hazards.

Quick Scoop: If you’re answering “according to OSHA, what are two types of chemical hazards,” the expected short response for most safety, HAZCOM, and HAZWOPER trainings is: physical hazards and health hazards.