OSHA has released an updated list of the most cited violations of its safety and health regulations for the fiscal year 2006, which runs from October 2005 through September 2006.
The two top-most cited standards, Scaffolding and Fall Protection, are for violations of guidelines for Construction safety.
Except for the 9th entry, violations of the Ladder Safety, which also falls under the Construction safety category, the rest of the top 10 citations fall under the General Industry category.
It is interesting to note that in the General Industry category, the most citations are for failing to meet safety guidelines of the Hazard Communication Standard, 3rd row.
A sampling of commentaries posted on various blogs
Paul M. Secunda, Asst. Prof. of Law, Univ. of Mississippi School of Law, writes
Apparently, the same standards are being consistently violated year in and year out. … What’s amazing about this list is not only the variety of violations, but the absolute number of violations that occur in a given year.
In his blog post OSHA’s Top Ten Violations for 2006 — More of the Same Hal Macomber observes
Construction safety needs to be everyone’s concern working in the industry. Great strides have been made by many companies. Yet people are being injured in roughly the same numbers as they have been for the last 15 years.
In the same vein, Jim Kissane in his article OSHA’s Top 10 – NOT AGAIN? ponders
Why, one might ask, would any construction firm owner be willing to endure the disruptions and costs associated with OSHA violations, or worse yet, the injuries and financial and reputational consequences that come with violations that aren’t caught in time?
Detailed reports of OSHA’s freqently cited standards, by SIC code and number of employees, can me obtained by visiting this page on OSHA’s site.