Orlando - OSHA on Tuesday, September 27, 2024 announced its most frequently cited workplace safety standards for fiscal year 2024.

The session took place in the Learning Lab located on the expo floor at the NSC Safety Congress & Expo in Orlando. As always, the session drew many attendees, and it was standing room only as early as 15 minutes before the session was slated to begin. The majority of those who wanted to see the presentation were turned away as there simply wasn't enough space for everyone to safety enter the area.

Scott Ketcham, director of the directorate of enforcement programs for OSHA, together with Safety+Health magazine presented the preliminary data for “OSHA’s Top 10” during the 2024 NSC Safety Congress & Expo, the world’s largest annual gathering of safety professionals.

Fall Protection – General Requirements remains at the top of the list for the 14th year in a row, followed by Hazard Communication and Ladders.

“While incredible advancements are made in safety each year, we continue to see many of the same types of violations appear on OSHA’s Top 10 list,” said Lorraine Martin, NSC president and CEO. “As a safety community, it’s critical we come together to acknowledge these persistent trends and identify solutions to better protect our workforces."

The Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety standards for FY 2024 are:

1. Fall Protection – General Requirements (1926.501): 6,307 violations
2. Hazard Communication (1910.1200): 2,888
3. Ladders (1926.1053): 2,573
4. Respiratory Protection (1910.134): 2,470
5. Lockout/Tagout (1910.147): 2,443
6. Powered Industrial Trucks (1910.178): 2,248
7. Fall Protection – Training Requirements (1926.503): 2,050
8. Scaffolding (1926.451): 1,873
9. Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection (1926.102): 1,814
10. Machine Guarding (1910.212): 1,541

Top incidents related to the most-cited standards

“While OSHA has revealed a list of the top 10 safety citations for many years, it is critical to also highlight the factors associated with these workplace issues,” Martin said in a release by NSC. “By examining injury, illness and fatality data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in tandem with OSHA’s findings, we can better understand safety outcomes and ultimately find impactful solutions to keep workers safe."

The following are some of the top incidents related to the most frequently cited workplace safety standards based on 2022 BLS data:

• Falls, which account for four of the top 10 citations (1. Fall Protection – General Requirements, 3. Ladders, 7. Fall Protection – Training Requirements, and 8. Scaffolds) resulted in 865 deaths in 2022.
• Respiratory Illnesses (4. Respiratory Protection) over 22,100 respiratory illnesses cases were reported in manufacturing and another 2,000 in construction in 2022.
• Hazardous Energy (5. Control of Hazardous Energy – Lockout/Tagout) the injury event caught in running equipment or machinery during maintenance or cleaning led to 54 deaths in 2022 and nearly 18,000 days away, restricted or transferred, or DART, in 2021-2022. Exposure to electricity led to 145 deaths in 2022 and nearly 4,000 DART cases in 2021-2022.
• Forklift, Order Picker, Platform Truck – Powered (6. Powered Industrial Trucks) was the primary source of 73 deaths in 2022, while DART cases were almost 25,000 in 2021-2022. 
• Eye and Face Injuries (9. Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection) nearly 90,000 DART cases were reported in 2021-2022 involving face and eye injuries. 
• Caught in Running Equipment (10. Machine Guarding) caught in running equipment or machinery during regular operation resulted in 35 deaths in 2022 and almost 27,000 DART cases in 2021-2022. 

NSC also noted some of the other top fatality events in 2022 outside of OSHA’s Top 10 safety citations, including:

• Transportation incidents, which represent the top cause of death across industries in the U.S., led to nearly 2,100 deaths, including almost 1,400 from roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicles and 325 from pedestrian vehicular incidents.
• Workplace violence yielded 865 fatalities, including 791 by intentional injury by a person. 
• Overexertion and bodily reaction generated more than 1 million DART events in 2021-2022, including nearly 700,000 DART cases from overexertion involving outside sources.