The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently released its preliminary Top 10 most cited workplace safety violations of 2012, including:
- 1. Fall Protection: Violations relating to the appropriate construction, installation and monitoring of safety systems aimed at preventing falls at the workplace (7,250 citations).
- 2. Hazard Communication: Violations involving the dangers of chemicals produced and imported in a workplace – and the communications regarding these hazards to the workers (4,696 citations).
- 3. Scaffolding: Violations involving the basic safety requirements surrounding the design and construction of workplace scaffolding (3,814 citations).
- 4. Respiratory Protection: Violations regarding the maintenance of respirators and the employer development of respirator protection programs (2,371 citations).
- 5. Ladder: Violations regarding the general use of ladders and their requirements (2,310 citations).
- 6. Machine and Machine Guarding, General Industry: Violations cover guarding of machinery to protect operators and other employees from hazards (2,097 citations).
- 7. Powered Industrial Trucks, General Industry: Violations involve the operation, maintenance and design of powered industrial trucks, including forklifts and motorized hand trucks (1,993 citations).
- 8. Electrical: Wiring Methods, General Industry: Violations cover the grounding of electrical equipment, wiring and insulation (1,774 citations).
- 9. Control of Hazardous Energy — Lockout/Tagout, General Industry: Violations include performance requirements for the control of hazardous energy during servicing and maintenance of machines and equipment (1,572 citations).
- 10. Electrical – General Requirements, General Industry: Violations cover general safety requirements for designing electrical systems (1,332 citations).
For details on the Top 10 list, visit the National Safety Council’s website, www.nsc.org.
