OSHA Top Citations

OSHA recently released its list of the most frequently cited workplace safety and health violations for 2011. The top 10, starting with the most violations: fall protection in construction, scaffolding in construction, hazard communication, respiratory protection, lockout/tagout, electrical wiring methods, powered industry trucks, ladders in construction, electrical requirements, and machine guarding. Find compliance advice at www.osha.gov/SLTC.

Scaffold Safety Refesher

Here is a list of safety tips you should pass on as reminders to your employees to keep them safe on scaffold:

• Ensure scaffold is sound, rigid and sufficient to carry its own weight plus four times the maximum intended load without settling or displacement.
• Erect the scaffold on solid footing
• DO NOT use unstable objects, such as barrels, boxes, loose bricks or concrete blocks, to support scaffold or planks
• DO NOT erect, move, dismantle or alter scaffold except under the supervision of a competent person.
• Equip all scaffold with a guardrails, midrails and toeboards.
• Immediately repair or replace scaffold accessories, such as braces, brackets, trusses, screw legs or ladders, that are damaged or weakened from any cause
• Ensure scaffold platforms are tightly planked with scaffold plank grade material or its equal.
• Make certain that a competent person (per OSHA) inspects all scaffolding and re-inspects it at designated times. 
• Instruct employees about the hazards of using diagonal braces as fall protection.
• Access scaffold only by using ladders and stairwells.
• Keep scaffolds at least 10ft. from electric power lines at all times.

OSHA top ten citations for 2010

OSHA's Most Frequently Cited Violations

Federal OSHA recently issued its list of top ten list most frequently cited violations for the 2010 fiscal year.  In all, there were approximately 94,000 violations issued  and the top ten represented nearly half of all violations.  The 2009 and 2010 lists have many similarities as scaffolding topped the list again with 8,371 violations.  The full list is below:

1.        1926.451 - Scaffolding: 8371Violations

2.        1926.501 - Fall Protection:  7,559 Violations

3.        1910.1200 - Hazard Communication:  6,633 Violations

4.        1910.134 - Respiratory Protection:  3,932 Violations

5.        1926.1053 - Ladders:  3,820 Violations

6.        1910.147 - Lockout/Tagout:  3,531 Violations

7.        1910.305 - Electrical, Wiring Methods:  3,381 Violations

8.        1910.178 - Powered Industrial Trucks:  3,224 Violations

9.        1910.303 - Electrical, General Requirements:  2,770 Violations

10.     1910.212 - Machine Guarding:  2,556 Violations