By Emily Clark, Safety Editor
OSHA has released its annual inspection plan under the Site-Specific Targeting Program (SST). Will your establishment be the target of one of these inspections?
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Intended to focus enforcement resources on high-hazard industries, the SST plan targets high-hazard, nonconstruction workplaces with 20 or more workers and is based on data collected from a survey of 80,000 establishments in high-hazard industries.
Nursing and personal care facilities are excluded from the 2014 SST plan because they are currently the target of a National Emphasis Program, which includes a separate programmed inspection plan.
So where will OSHA focus its resources this year? First, area offices will inspect facilities on the Primary Inspection List, which includes establishments that meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Manufacturing establishments with a Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (DART) rate at or above 7.0;
- Manufacturing establishments with a Days Away from Work Injury and Illness (DAFWII) case rate at or above 5.0;
- Nonmanufacturing establishments with a DART rate at or above 15.0; or
- Nonmanufacturing establishments with a DAFWII case rate at or above 14.0.
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If an area office completes all inspections on the Primary Inspection List, it can proceed to the Secondary Inspection List, which includes establishments meeting one or more of the following criteria:
- Manufacturing establishments with DART rates of 5.0 or higher;
- Manufacturing establishments with DAFWII case rates of 4.0 or higher;
- Nonmanufacturing establishments with DART rates of 7.0 or higher; or
- Nonmanufacturing establishments with DAFWII case rates of 5.0 or higher.
Finally, if all inspections on the Secondary Inspection List are completed, the area office can obtain a regional list of additional establishments to inspect. None of these establishments will have a DART rate of 3.6 or lower or a DAFWII case rate of 2.2 or lower.
Inspections conducted under the most recent SST plan will be comprehensive safety inspections. Health inspections will be limited to referrals from Compliance Safety and Health Officers (CSHOs) or inspections expanded by the Area Director based on an employer’s prior inspection history.
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In states such as California and Washington that administer their own occupational safety and health agencies, state officials can choose whether to follow federal OSHA’s SST plan, use a high-hazard inspection targeting system based OSHA’s Scheduling System for Programmed Inspections, or use a state-developed high-hazard inspection targeting system based on state data.