Striking newcomer in OSHA’s top-10 citations 2017

Updated (29 November, 2017): Just as every year, OSHA released its top-10 standards for which they issued citations in the previous fiscal year. As you can guess, they did it again for 2017.

For now, we will take a look at the top-10 list entirely and share some thoughts about it.

The top-10 list

First, check out the entire list below. To provide some background information, we have added the number of citations of each standard of last year:

Decrease in total number of citations

The first thing that stands out is the decrease of citations within the top 10. The total number of citations in the top 10 of 2016 was 35.019. In 2017, this number dropped almost 10% to 32.027 citations in the top 10.

From a safety point of perspective this is very positive. Assuming that OSHA put as much effort in monitoring the compliance with safety regulations as last year. Especially citations in the Hazard communication and electrical field decreased, even resulting in the disappearance of the Electrical – General Requirements standard from the list.

Fall protection still number one

For 7 years in a row now the fall protection standard leads the OSHA top-10 list, and sadly the number of citations is about the same as last year. On the other hand, it is good to see that scaffolding and ladders have shown a bigger decrease (in the number of citations).

A loud and clear signal that safe working at height still needs more attention and awareness regarding this topic!

Striking newcomer

Although the top-10 list generally contains more or less the same safety standards, sometimes in a different order, we see a newcomer in the list of 2017: Fall Protection – Training Requirements.

This indicates that lots of citations are issued for workers who don’t have the proper training for working at height or don’t stay up-to-date with the current fall protection developments.

A while ago, we wrote a blog about (bad) habits when working at height, exactly outlining why regular training is essential when working at height! This development in the top-10 list proves that this is a serious issue as it comes to fall protection.

Our findings

As a specialist in safe working at height, we applaud the overall decrease in citations in the field of fall protection and working at height. But, we are well aware that still a lot of workers are in danger each day when working at height.

Given the fact that more as 45% of the citations is related to working at height and these citations are just the tip of the iceberg, we will keep on fighting for our cause to minimize the number of fall accidents worldwide by developing world-class fall protection systems, scaffolding systems and sharing our knowledge by our blog posts.

Free download

In 2016, we created an infographic about the most issued citations for subparagraphs within the fall protection standard and, more importantly, how to prevent them. You can download this infographic below.

Later this year, OSHA will release more detailed data for 2017. Based on that, we will create an updated version of the infographic on how to prevent citations and work safely!