OSHA announced Thursday that its 2008 Site-Specific
Targeting (SST) plan will focus on approximately 3,800 high-hazard worksites on
its primary list for unannounced comprehensive safety inspections over the
coming year.
"We will make effective use of our inspection resources
to focus our targeted inspection program on those workplaces with the highest
injury and illness rates," says OSHA director Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. in an
agency release. "This program emphasizes to employers the importance of
our enforcement efforts in ensuring safe working conditions for
employees."
This program will initially cover about 3,800 individual
worksites on the primary list that reported 11 or more injuries or illnesses
resulting in days away from work, restricted work activity, or job transfer for
every 100 full-time employees (known as the DART rate), according to the
agency. The primary list will also include sites based on a "Days Away
from Work Injury and Illness" (DAFWII) rate of nine or higher (nine or
more cases that involve days away from work per 100 full-time employees).
Employers not on the primary list, who reported DART rates of between 7.0 and
11.0, or DAFWII rates of between 5.0 and 9.0, will be placed on a secondary
list for possible inspection. The national DART rate in 2006 for private
industry was 2.3, while the national DAFWII rate was 1.3.
The agency also said it will randomly select and inspect
about 175 workplaces (with 100 or more employees) across the nation that
reported low injury and illness rates for the purpose of reviewing their actual
degree of compliance with OSHA requirements. These establishments are selected
from those industries with above the national DART and DAFWII rates.
Finally, the agency will include on the primary list some
establishments that did not respond to the 2007 data survey.
Over the past 10 years, according to the release, OSHA
has used a site-specific targeting inspection program based on injury and
illness data. This year's program (SST-08) was developed using the agency's
Data Initiative for 2007, which surveyed approximately 80,000 employers to
obtain their injury and illness numbers for 2006.
OSHA Announces 2008 Site-Specific Targeting Plan (5/23)