OSHA Announces The Top 10 Most Commonly Cited Violations For 2022

Communities across the U.S. have been anticipating this important reveal for this year so far! For the 12th year in a row fall protection continues to stay at number one for the most cited violation. The lack of proper fall protection knowledge, awareness, and training can easily lead to severe injuries and death.

Coming in at number two for the most cited OSHA standard of this year 2022 is hazard communication. Hazard communication is incredibly important because of the severity of harm it can cause in many different ways. There is no excuse or reason for HazCom standards to be ignored. The importance of this topic shouldn’t dissolve under any circumstance, regardless of whether or not employees and staff have been at an organization for many years, or are constantly hiring.

Every employee, every single year, matters. Every employee and staff member should be regularly trained, and re-trained because everyone needs a safety refresher. Blue collar workers have so much going on in their personal and professional life through the daily hustle and bustle of each work week. It is an employers’ responsibility to make sure that employees are always up to speed on safety knowledge, awareness, procedures, and training at all times. A “one and done” training doesn’t cut it, people need annual training in hazard communication. There’s a lot of information to remember, soak in, and specific procedures to practice. Disasters, deaths, injuries, lawsuits, building/work site fires, and more can happen if workers do not know and practice the correct handling, storing, and transporting of chemicals. Workers also have a right to have PPE (personal protective equipment) that isn’t torn, worn out, or damaged in any way. Whether it is a regular use or what to do if accidents occur, employers and workers should not take this topic lightly as it can be very detrimental in many ways.

Running up in third place for OSHA’s  most common citations is Respiratory Protection. We only have one respiratory system to take great care of, so we should never take it for granted! Having respiratory problems cause many limitations and restrictions when it comes to living your life to the fullest. Some  respiratory problems come up earlier and some later in life; regardless of what kind of indoor or outdoor hobbies you have, or how much you love your career. It is vital to take the proper precautions and safety practices to avoid chances of developing serious health issues. 

Airborne hazards are all over the place, and every worker has rights that are put in place to step up, report, and leave the worksite/workplace if it is not a safe environment for them to be in. Before workers skip out on being safe and protected, they should ask themselves: “do I really want to take these risks when I know I could get cancer, lung impairment, diseases, or even risk my entire life?” 

Before employers decide to disregard keeping their employers safe and protected with respiratory protection, they should ask themselves this question: “do I really want to save a little time and money by not providing proper respiratory protection and delivering a respiratory protection program for my employees, when I know that worker injuries worker deaths, lawsuits, and osha fines cost millions of more dollars out of my profit?”

Employers should take the time to develop, maintain, and implement a respiratory protection program for their employees. Having this topic in your safety program and health and safety manual is very important if there’s any respiratory risks on any level in the line of work or industry in general. Respirators give employees the confidence they need to stay protected and safe from dangerous vapors, dusts, smokes, mists, fogs, gasses, fumes, and sprays. 

The OSHA standard that is often an issue in small to enterprise level businesses is Ladders, placing 4th on the list. These citations are common across the board, because so many companies have to utilize ladders these days. Many blue collar workers and business owners may not view ladders to be dangerous, but the truth is that they are deadly. Believe it or not, each year in the U.S. more than 310 construction workers are killed and more than 10,350 endure serious injuries by falls from heights. Also, 57% of deaths from ladders occur in the construction industry.

Many workers get stressed and in a time crunch, and miss out on taking an extra second or minute to secure their life and those around them. Weather conditions can also put unnecessary stress on workers. There’s always other factors such as laziness/apathy, distractions, or they are just overworked and physically exhausted. One in five deadly falls in the United States are from heights under ten feet, and ladders easily count in this statistic. Contributing deadly factors with ladders include but are not limited to: worker inexperience or lack of training, improper ladder selection, improper use of a ladder, ladder overloading, ladder not set up on a flat, level surface or at a proper angle, not extending the ladder above the roof line, and lack of safe access.

Placing in the middle for the fifth most frequently cited OSHA standard is Scaffolding. 86% of deaths from scaffolds happen within the construction industry. Some simple actions we can take to prevent and reduce scaffolding incidents are: have an experienced supervisor train and do the scaffold setup while supervising the workers, this includes making sure all scaffolds are on flat, solid ground. It is also important to set up each specific scaffold in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions/manual, every scaffolding manufacturer varies from minor things to even major things sometimes. Take a few minutes to review the OSHA standards for scaffolding to refresh your knowledge and to remember what you may have forgotten along the way. Another great action to take is scaffold inspections, utilizing guardrails and personal fall arrest systems/fall protection systems/ppe. Don’t forget to make sure all scaffolds are completely planked, secured, and have the right access.

Up next at number six for the most frequently cited OSHA standard this year is Lockout/Tagout. Many people forget about how the lack of safety training in this topic can be seriously dangerous to not only workers, but property as well. Safety training on this topic doesn’t require that much time, but it should be catered specifically to each business and what hazards they currently or will have on their work sites. Controlling hazardous energy is vital as it can be incredibly tragic with just one small action or lack of action. Take the time to book an authentic, detailed lockout/tagout training course. The value-packed one we offer here at True Safety is a four-hour training.

Powered Industrial Trucks (PIT) are the seventh most commonly cited OSHA standard. Forklifts and other PITs may look fairly small and easy to handle, but they can be deadly and powerful. There are unfortunate events that happen all over the world from workers being severely hurt, pinned, trapped, or killed from this type of equipment. From making final touches inside a new construction building to warehouse and general labor, these are very common pieces of equipment. We should not ever take our safety training with Powered Industrial Trucks for granted, because the price to pay is definitely never worth the risk. Many employers have encountered major profit losses to various forklifts due to damaged goods, broken equipment, and building repairs. Here at True Safety, we not only provide forklift training, but forklift operator instructor development training as well.

Making it on the top ten most common OSHA citation list for a whopping second time is Fall Protection - Training Requirements ranking in 8th place. Now, this is slightly different from the regular fall protection that ranked as number one. There are specific requirements that each employer needs to adhere by when it comes to fall protection. This is something that the employer can research on osha.gov, view in their HSE manual, or consult with us here at True Safety. Fall protection training requirements vary depending on each workers’ tasks. Some may just need a four-hour awareness training, while others need the complete package (i.e. 8-hour or 24-hour fall protection training.)

Rolling in at the bottom of the list is Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection ranking at number nine for the most frequent OSHA citations.

Last but not least is Machine Guarding ranking at number 10 for the most common OSHA violations. Why risk losing an arm, leg, finger, or worse just by not taking a few seconds to practice safety? Life becomes very difficult for those who are compromised in those ways. Everything is more difficult, and simple tasks become hard work. Don’t let yourself get apathetic, distracted, or forgetful because that attitude will be one to regret if you get hurt or killed.

Care about who cares about you, care about who loves you, and care about getting home to your loved ones every day. We are dedicated to helping protect the lives of our blue collar Americans who truly keep our country and economy moving forward. If you have any questions about what training you might need, or just want to talk with one of our instructors or managers to find out what solutions we could help with, don’t hesitate to reach out. We care about helping you in any way we can whether you’re an individual or business owner. Find out if training, consulting, site safety assistance, or our virtual safety training platform is right for you. We can also help with ISN/PEC/Avetta account management and health and safety manual and program development. We also kick butt in providing engaging, awesome safety meetings for our clients! P.S. - We now have a full service CDL TRAINING AND TESTING DEPARTMENT!

[cited: OSHA]

[cited: Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program]

[cited: NIOSH]

[cited: CDC]