October 25, 2023

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released its top ten most frequently cited federal health and safety violations for fiscal year (FY) 2023 and the top four entries relate to construction fall protection standards.

Ranging from most cited to least, the top ten most cited violations were: (1) 7,271 citations for violating general fall protection requirements in construction; (2) 3,213 citations for hazard communication violations; (3) 2,978 citations for violating ladder safety requirements in construction; (4) 2,859 citations for violating scaffolding safety requirements in construction; (5) 2,561 citations for violating powered industrial truck/forklift safety requirements; (6) 2,556 citations for violating lockout/tagout requirements; (7) 2,481 citations for violating respiratory protection requirements; (8) 2,112 citations for violating fall protection training requirements in construction; (9) 2,074 citations for violations of eye and face protection requirements in construction; and (10) 1,644 citations for violations of machine guarding safety requirements.

OSHA notes that the FY 2023 most frequently cited list mirrors those listed for FY 2022 and said that the only major change was that respiratory protection violations declined from third to seventh place.

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