What are the Top OSHA Violations and How Do You Prevent Them?
Every spring, OSHA puts together a list of last year’s most frequently occurring OSHA violations.
The specific ranking within the top 10 and the volume of citations granted for each one, varies from year to year. But the takeaway is obvious as well: There is always a need for improvement in workplace safety.
This article will assist you in identifying common OSHA violations in your workplace and will provide compliance solutions that will help make your job site a safer place to be.
What the List Means
The annual list of top 10 OSHA violations only provides part of the story. The statistics only reflect the oft cited standards and the frequency a workplace was cited for violations of those standards. Less revealing still is what we do not see.
It does not include worker injuries or deaths due to those failures. The loss of productivity or damage to property could also account for each hazard.
Standards help avoid dangerous and costly accidents. It also saves time and money for citations and remediation’s.
Frequently Cited Standards
Although the order and the standards themselves in the list of standards that have been the most-cited for a given year will vary from one year to the next, some standards reoccur year after year. Among the standards most cited among these are:
- Fall Protection, Construction (1926.501)
- Hazard Communication, General Industry (1910.1200)
- Ladders, Construction (1926.1053)
- Respiratory Protection, General Industry (1910.134)
- Scaffolding, Construction (1926.451)
- Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout), General Industry (1910.147)
- Powered Industrial Trucks, General Industry (1910.178)
- Fall Protection Training, Construction (1926.503)
- Eye and Face Protection, Construction (1926.102)
- Machinery and Machine Guarding, General Industry (1910.212)
- Electrical Wiring Methods, General Industry (1910.305)
- Electrical General Requirements, General Industry (1910.303)
The dates of each citation correspond to a federal safety standard and are cited in Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations. OSHA has thousands of safety standards for construction, general industry, maritime, agriculture and others that it develops, updates and maintains.
Each of these is a federal rule that employers must follow. As no workplace is the same workplace standards are each site specific. Each employer is responsible for knowing what regulations apply to them and will have to comply with those. A citation may be issued if standards are not upheld or there is a breach of the rules.
Citations and Inspections
The administration doesn’t simply set the rules. And it can also enforce them. A telephone investigation, or an in-person inspection, may be conducted if serious safety complaints exist. If the inspector discovers violations of the standards during the inspection the employer will be cited.
Citations may also impose a financial fine, requiring the employer to fix the problem. The administration breaks down the results also into labels of wilful, repeated, negligent and so forth.
To learn more about common hazards in the workplace that are often reported to OSHA, the administration’s page has information. There you will find actual statistics on citations, fatalities, injuries, and even health data on chemical exposures.
Preventing OSHA Hazards
Regardless of the figures in any given year, the most frequent violations have a few major characteristics. Common to nearly every worksite, the top 10 is always populated by hazards you would expect.
Objects such as ladders and powered industrial trucks are used so regularly that many employers might just ignore the regulations.
The obvious inference is that a gigantic machine that can bend metal appears to be more dangerous than a normal forklift. But, the failure to apply machine guarding or a lockout/tagout to industrial machinery is commonly included among these.
The easiest way to avoid common violations is proper training. And the simplest way to educate employees is through online safety training.
In Person Safety Training
In the case of minimizing workplace safety hazards, half the battle is knowledge. Trained employees can identify, prevent and report violations in the workplace. Training on health and safety also results in fewer injuries in the workplace.
Of course, in person safety compliance training does exist. Workers can be easily trained for various types of jobs in high quality center-based educational programs. Two approaches to safety at work are trained on — prevention and protection.
Prevention
Preventive training seeks to avoid hazards altogether. Employers protect their employees and reduce the number of safety complaints by educating their staff on prevalent threats and how to respond appropriately when situations become unsafe.
The emphasis of the OSHA Outreach Training Program is on prevention. In cooperation with the U.S. OSHA assists workers in preparing for multiple occupations in construction and general industry through the Department of Labor (DOL).
The administration conducts in person classroom training through various OSHA- approved trainers. Every student who trains through a verified provider, whether in a 10-hour or 30-hour program, will receive an official OSHA card from the Department of Labor.
These cards show a worker’s awareness of all sorts of safety concepts from hazard communication and Focus Four hazards to machine guarding and hand tools. Although there is no expiration date for a DOL card, employers, states or localities may require employees to retrain.
Protection
Hazards cannot always be avoided. Sometimes, the right protection is to avoid the threat.
Not enforcing the proper use of protective equipment can be fatal. Among the standards most commonly cited from year to year are those involving personal protective equipment (PPE) such as respiratory protection, scaffolding and face shields.
Through only a few hours of in person classroom training, employees can learn about when and how to use PPE, general requirements for fall protection, bloodborne pathogens safety procedures and more. These classes provide critical skills to protect against hazards that could injure or kill workers.
Training with us
We also provide OSHA Outreach courses. Safety Counseling is an authorized in person classroom trainer for OSHA. You can learn with us in order to complete your 10 hour and 30 hour construction or general industry program.
In addition to Outreach Training, we also provide in-person training on a number of safety compliance topics. Be ready to work near and around excavators, forklifts and scissor lifts. Be safe on scaffolding and ladders.
Wherever you work in New Mexico, we can help you from these common violations and hazards. Safety Counselling has a training facility in Albuquerque and will also offer OSHA training on-site at your business.