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The construction industry fall protection standard remains the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) most frequently cited standard for the 12th year in a row, the agency announced on September 20. Patrick Kapust, acting director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, presented a list of preliminary figures for fiscal year (FY) 2022—the fiscal year ends September 30—during the National Safety Council’s (NSC) 2022 Safety Congress & Expo in San Diego, California.
Standards in the agency’s top 10 most frequently cited standards remained the same, but their relative positions changed. Fall protection was followed by the agency’s general industry hazard communication and respiratory protection standards. The top 10 included 4 other construction industry standards and 3 other general industry standards.
The top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety and health standards so far for FY 2022 are:
“OSHA’s annual Top 10 list helps define trends so safety professionals can find the appropriate solutions,” NSC President and CEO Lorraine Martin said in an NSC statement.
“Despite advancements in workplace safety, we continue to see the same types of violations each year,” Martin added. “It’s more important than ever employers seek education and resources to keep their workers safe.”
OSHA enforcement actions in FY 2022 have included:
The COVID-19 NEP, set to expire July 7, was extended indefinitely. Industries targeted by the COVID-19 NEP include correctional facilities, discount department stores, restaurants, and warehouses and storage facilities, as well as groceries and supermarkets, health care, and meat and poultry processing.
Industries targeted by the heat-related hazards NEP include those in the agricultural, construction, and manufacturing sectors, as well as automobile dealerships, postal service, and freight and rail transportation. The heat hazards NEP allows agency compliance safety and health officers (CSHOs) to make self-referrals, initiating inspections of outdoor work environments in plain view. The NEP also accepts referrals from the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD).
OSHA has had an excavation and trenching hazards NEP since October 1, 2018, but announced its pledge of 1,000 inspections in July. 2022 has seen a 68 percent increase in excavation and trenching fatalities over 2021.
In addition to existing regional emphasis programs (REPs) for powered industrial trucks and warehousing and storage, OSHA added a warehousing and storage REP in Region 3 (Delaware, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia) on August 17 focused on ergonomic and forklift safety and heat hazards.
The Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) requires pictograms on labels to alert users of the chemical hazards to which they may be exposed. Each pictogram consists of a symbol on a white background framed within a red border and represents a distinct hazard(s). The pictogram on the label is determined by the chemical hazard classification.
Do your employees know how to handle hazardous materials safely? Here are 11 basic rules all employees who handle hazardous materials should know and follow.
Why reinvent the wheel when there are so many ready-made safety observances to link up to? The National Safety Council (NSC) publishes an annual list of safety meeting topics. Here are some highlights.
When maintaining a safe work environment, it’s important to consider risk and take steps to manage it. The Risks and the Rewards survey from Avetta and EHS Daily Advisor was launched in May 2022 and gathered the insight of 106 environment, health, and safety (EHS) professionals about how their organizations handle risk management and mitigation. […]
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the economic cost of unregulated occupational health and safety practices is estimated to be close to 4% of the yearly global GDP which is around $3 trillion. Businesses around the world are paying a steep cost on workplace incidents and safety hazards. To mitigate damages, organizations must ensure […]
The number of global regulations for EHS and quality practices is increasing every year, as are the penalties for noncompliance. The cost of failing to comply with regulations is high and can be measured in terms of money, brand damage, environmental damage, and human lives. Yet with regulatory compliance becoming increasingly complex—especially for organizations with international […]
From working at home to navigating the safety requirements of the pandemic workplace, workers around the world are experiencing disruption that is taking its toll on mental and physical health. As COVID-19 has demonstrated, the world can move quickly from business-as-usual to severe global disruption. Organizations therefore require expert guidance to navigate the tempestuous present […]
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