Every year, OSHA releases a list of the Top 10 Most Cited Violations for that year. For 2018, preliminary results were presented on October 23 at the National Safety Council Congress and Expo in Houston, TX. This year saw a new entry to the Top 10: Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection (1926.102). With 2018 drawing to a close, OSHA has released the final list.
Most-Cited Violations 2018:
- Fall Protection – General Requirements (1926.501) – Total Violations: 7,216
- Hazard Communication (1910.1200) – Total Violations: 4,537
- Scaffolding (1926.451) – Total Violations: 3,319
- Respiratory Protection (1910.134) – Total Violations: 3,112
- Lockout / Tagout (1910.212) – Total Violations: 2,923
- Ladders (1926.1053) – Total Violations: 2,780
- Powered Industrial Trucks (1910.178) – Total Violations: 2,281
- Fall Protection (1926.503) – Total Violations: 1,978
- Machine Guarding (1910.212) – Total Violations 1,969
- Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye & Face Protection (1926.102) – Total Violations: 1,528
Patrick Kapust, Deputy Director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, believes the Top 10 “are a good place for the employer to start [to] identify hazards in their own workplace.” The OSHA website also has a tool that can be used to find frequent citations by industry. Once a company knows what citations are most common in its industry, OSHA offers compliance assistance to help employers correct issues and hazards that could lead to those citations before an inspection even happens. There is also a consultation program for small businesses to aid them in compliance since their financial resources are more limited and they may not be able to employ a dedicated safety manager. to finish an interview with Safety+Health Magazine, Kapust emphasized that “OSHA has and will continue to look for the most effective and efficient means of addressing workplace safety and health.”
Source: “OSHA’s ‘Top 10’ most-cited violations for fiscal year 2018”, Safety+Health Magazine
