- Date of inspection
- Type of complaint
- Total inspection time in hours
- Scope of the inspection
- Case number of previous OSHA activity
- Number of employees covered
- Closing conference date.
Inspections Up in '96
by Allen Cooley
OSHA activity in the newspaper industry was on the rise in calendar year1996. A total of 76 inspections were conducted at newspaper work sites, andnewspapers paid $105,888 to federal and state OSHA programs. The hardest hitnewspaper, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, paid $17,200 from one inspection.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the OccupationalSafety and Health Administration is authorized to conduct workplace inspectionsto determine whether employers are complying with standards for safe andhealthful workplaces. Inspections are performed by federal OSHA complianceofficers or state OSHA officers, if the state has its own OSHA program. Thereare currently 25 state plans in effect.
Of the total fines paid for citations, 62 percent went to federal OSHA and38 percent went to state OSHA programs.
With roughly 8 million workplaces covered by the OSHA Act, OSHA complianceofficers visit the worst situations first, especially if there is an imminentdanger in the workplace.
Because of the limited manpower for fieldwork, OSHA has begun testingseveral new programs in recent years. One is the Broader Penalty ReductionPolicy, whereby penalties are reduced for small employers while providing themincentives to establish safety and health programs. Other developing OSHAprograms, the Maine 200 and the Missouri 500, involve voluntary industrycompliance and assistance from OSHA.
OSHA inspection and citations data provide a wealth of information,including:
All of these data can be obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request toOSHA. The cost is $27 per industry printout.
Allen Cooley is an industrial hygienist for NAA. E-mail,coola@naa.org; phone, (703)902-1834; fax,(703) 902-1857.