Top 5 OSHA Violations of 2021 to Avoid in the New Year
| By Momentum | 0 Comments
The New Year is here! We hope you have a safe, happy, and fulfilling 2022 but before shutting the door on 2021 we thought it would be appropriate to look back at the top five most common Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) Violations.
1. Fall Protection
Did you know that fall protection is consistently ranked at the top of OSHA’s common violation list for over 10 years? It ranked in this year with 5,271 violations. Appropriate and effective fall protection is crucially important because it can prevent serious work-related injuries and deaths. If you are interested in a more detailed run-through of your fall protection rights under OSHA you can click here for more information!
2. Respiratory Protection
There were 2,521 Violations filed under respiratory protection. This OSHA protection states that workers must be provided with respirators or other respiratory protection when required for the job. Respirators are important because they protect workers against a variety of environmental hazards including insufficient oxygen environments, harmful dust, smoke, gases, vapors, and sprays. Protecting one’s lungs from on-the-job hazards can avoid long-term injury or death. Go here for a detailed description of possible respiratory protection.
3. Ladder Safety
Another important OSHA guideline focuses on ladder safety. This year there were 2,018 violations. If you are interested in learning more about how to safely use ladders, we recently published a post that focuses entirely on ladder safety! OSHA also provides an in-depth explanation of ladder safety requirements here.
4. Scaffolding
There were 1,943 Violations reported under scaffolding infractions. As stated by OSHA, scaffold incidents causing injury or death to workers are often the result of either the planking or support giving way, by the worker slipping, the absence of fall protection, or being struck by a falling object.
5. Hazard Communication Standard
All workers have the right to know and understand any work hazards that they may encounter while on the course of a job. There were 1,939 Violations recorded under this category. According to OSHA, information about the identities and hazards of the chemicals must be available and understandable to workers. The descriptions should be clear and concise and avoid using technical jargon that may obscure the true risk involved.
The most important takeaway when examining this list of common OSHA violations is that your employer is required to provide working conditions that are free of known dangers. If you are interested in learning more safety tips, OSHA provides state-specific safety courses.
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