On Safety: A closer look at OSHA’s ‘Top 10’ violations – Part VII
For the personal and laundry services industry, a total of 374 violations were issued, of which 260 were cited as serious. The top standards cited are:
| Rank | OSHA standard | No. of violations | Standard description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1910.1200(e)(1) | 39 | Hazard Communication – Lack of a written program |
| 2 | 1910.1200(h)(1) | 19 | Hazard Communication – Lack of or deficiencies in employee training |
| 3 | 1910.1200(g)(8) | 11 | Hazard Communication – Failure to maintain copies of Safety Data Sheets in the workplace |
| 1904.39(a)(2) | 11 | Failure to report the hospitalization of one or more injured employees to OSHA within 24 hours | |
| 5 | 1910.147(c)(4) | 10 | Lockout/Tagout – Lack of a written energy control program |
| 1910.212(a)(1) | 10 | Machine Guarding – General machine guarding | |
| 7 | 1910.1030(c)(1) | 9 | Bloodborne Pathogens – Lack of a written exposure control plan |
Most of the violations cited were related to the Hazard Communication Standard (1910.1200).
For the U.S. Postal Service, a total of 242 violations were issued, of which 74 were cited as serious. The top three violations included: 1910.22(a)(1) for housekeeping, with 11 violations; 1910.303(g)(1) for not keeping open spaces around electrical equipment, with 10 violations; and 1910.305(g)(1) for using flexible cords as permanent wiring, with nine violations.
For the chemicals manufacturing industry, 1,993 total violations were issued, of which 1,431 were cited as serious. The top standards cited are:
| Rank | OSHA standard | No. of violations | Standard description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1910.147(c)(4) | 69 | Lockout/Tagout – Lack of a written energy control program |
| 2 | 1910.134(e)(1) | 58 | Respiratory Protection – Failure to provide medical evaluations for employees required to wear a respirator |
| 1910.212(a)(1) | 58 | Machine Guarding – General machine guarding | |
| 1910.1200(h)(1) | 58 | Hazard Communication – Lack of or deficiencies in employee training | |
| 5 | 1910.1200(e)(1) | 53 | Hazard Communication – Lack of a written program |
| 6 | 1910.119(d)(3) | 43 | Process Safety Management – Process safety information, failure to document information necessary to the process |
| 7 | Section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act | 40 | General Duty Clause |
| 8 | 1910.119(f)(1) | 38 | Process Safety Management – Failure to develop and implement written operating procedures |
| 9 | 1910.147(c)(7) | 37 | Lockout/Tagout – Lack of training and education for employees |
| 10 | 1910.134(c)(1) | 34 | Respiratory Protection – Lack of a written program |
The most cited violations in this industry centered on hazard communication, respiratory protection, lockout/tagout and process safety management. For PSM, of the total violations cited in the industry, 246 covered all major paragraphs of the standard. Additionally of note, 40 violations were issued under the General Duty Clause. These violations were also tied to fatality and serious injury/illness reduction and included:
- Crushing (11 violations)
- Fire and combustible dust (nine)
- Struck by (nine)
- Heat stress (three)
- Caught in (three)
- Lack of training (two)
- Failure to use a seatbelt or lack of seat belts on forklifts (one)
- Ergonomics (one)
- Lack of an exposure control plan for COVID-19 (one)
Part VIII of this series will include the top violations in FY 2020 for three other industries – yet to be named.
This article represents the views of the authors and should not be construed as a National Safety Council endorsement.
Richard Fairfax (CIH, retired 2017) joined OSHA in January 1978 and retired from the agency in 2013. At OSHA, he was a practicing field industrial hygienist, as well as the deputy director and director of enforcement programs. In 2008, Richard served as acting director of construction and, in 2010, was designated deputy assistant secretary – overseeing all field, enforcement and training operations. From 1993 through 2010, Richard wrote an industrial hygiene column entitled, “OSHA Compliance Issues” for the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. He still serves on the Editorial Review Board. Richard now works part time for NSC-ORC HSE.
Post a comment to this article
Safety+Health welcomes comments that promote respectful dialogue. Please stay on topic. Comments that contain personal attacks, profanity or abusive language – or those aggressively promoting products or services – will be removed. We reserve the right to determine which comments violate our comment policy. (Anonymous comments are welcome; merely skip the “name” field in the comment box. An email address is required but will not be included with your comment.)