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.
| 2006 Most Frequently Cited Safety Violations, source OSHA |
| 1 |
Scaffolding, general requirements, construction (8,192 citations) |
29 CFR 1926.451 |
Scaffolding Regulatory Resources |
Scaffolding
Safety Training |
| 2 |
Fall protection, construction (5,927 citations) |
29 CFR 1926.501 |
Fall Protection Regulatory Resources |
Fall Protection
Safety Training |
| 3 |
Hazard communication standard, general industry (5,799 citations) |
29 CFR 1910.1200 |
Hazard
Communication Regulatory Resources |
Hazard
Communication Safety Training (Right to Know) |
| 4 |
Respiratory protection, general industry (3,522 citations) |
29 CFR 1910.134 |
Respiratory Protection Regulatory Resources |
Respiratory Protection Safety Training |
| 5 |
Control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout), general industry (3,218 citations) |
29 CFR 1910.147 |
Lockout/Tagout Regulatory Resources |
Lockout/Tagout Safety Training |
| 6 |
Powered industrial trucks, general industry (2,686 citations) |
29 CFR 1910.178 |
Powered Industrial Trucks Regulatory Resources |
Powered Industrial Trucks Safety Training |
| 7 |
Electrical, wiring methods, components and equipment, general industry (2,488 citations) |
29 CFR 1910.305 |
OSHA Electrical Safety Regulatory Resources |
Electrical Safety Training |
| 8 |
Machines, general requirements, general industry (2,383 citations) |
29 CFR 1910.212 |
Machine Guarding Regulatory Resources |
Machine Guarding Safety Training |
| 9 |
Ladders, construction (2,184 citations) |
29 CFR 1926.1053 |
Ladder Safety Regulatory Resources |
Ladder Safety Training |
| 10 |
Electrical systems design, general requirements, general industry (1,847 citations) |
29 CFR 1910.303 |
OSHA Electrical Standard Regulatory Resources |
Electrical Safety Training |
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.
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.