Back to Basics is a weekly feature that highlights important but possibly overlooked information that any EHS professional should know. This week, we examine the costs of safety failures.
The failure to put safety protections in place can be costly, resulting in large Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fines, injuries, illnesses, and fatalities, as well as hefty workers’ compensation costs.
Each year, OSHA releases an annual “top 10” list of its most frequently cited workplace safety and health standards. For 14 years, OSHA’s construction industry fall protection standard (29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §1926.501) has topped the list. At the National Safety Council’s (NSC) Safety Congress & Expo in Orlando, OSHA announced it had cited 6,307 violations in fiscal year (FY) 2024. Other frequently cited standards include those for hazard communication, respiratory protection, lockout/tagout, and machine guarding.
Following OSHA’s “top 10” announcement at the Safety Congress & Expo, the NSC revealed injury, illness, and fatality data behind the most violated safety and health standards.
The group analyzed injury, illness, and fatality data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in tandem with OSHA’s list of citations to better understand safety outcomes.
In June, insurer Liberty Mutual released its 2024 Workplace Safety Index of injuries and illnesses leading to employers’ highest workers’ compensation costs. Overexertion, for which there’s no federal standard, topped the list, followed by falls and being struck by objects or equipment.
The report from the insurer’s Risk Control Services ranked the top 10 causes of the most serious workplace injuries—those causing an employee to miss more than five days of work—by their direct medical costs and lost-wage payments. According to Liberty Mutual’s 2024 report, the top 10 causes, costing U.S. businesses $47.93 billion per year, were:
- Overexertion involving outside sources (carrying, holding, lifting, pulling, pushing, or throwing objects);
- Falls on the same level;
- Falls to a lower level;
- Being struck by objects or equipment;
- Other exertions or bodily reactions (awkward postures like bending and twisting, climbing, crawling, kneeling, reaching, sitting, standing, running, and walking);
- Vehicle crashes—roadway incidents involving a motorized land vehicle;
- A slip or trip without a fall;
- Getting caught in or compressed by equipment or objects;
- Striking an object or equipment—hitting in-place equipment or objects; and
- Repetitive motions involving microtasks.
Injuries or conditions due to awkward postures, overexertion, and repetitive motions are collectively referred to as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).
‘Ergonomics,’ overexertion, and back pain
The NSC’s analysis of BLS injury and illness data found overexertion and bodily reactions generated more than 1 million days away, restricted, or transferred (DART) events from 2021 to 2022, including nearly 700,000 DART cases from overexertion involving outside sources.
Lifting heavy loads, or “overexertion involving outside sources,” cost employers $12.49 billion in medical costs and lost-wage payments every year, according to Liberty Mutual. Just as overexertion is the leading cause of workers’ compensation costs, back injuries were associated with the highest total costs. Worldwide, back pain is responsible for more years lived with a disability than any other condition.
There’s no federal ergonomics standard; a standard issued in the waning days of the Clinton administration was rescinded by Congress in 2001. When OSHA inspectors find ergonomic hazards in a workplace, they cite employers using the agency’s authority under the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. OSHA also often issues “hazard alert letters,” warnings that carry no penalties.
In January, OSHA cited a Fairfield, Ohio, food services warehouse for exposing its employees to ergonomic hazards, issuing four hazard alert letters and proposing penalties that totaled $41,483.
Workers at the warehouse suffered severe injuries at nearly four times the average rate for their industry, according to OSHA, with a high percentage of injuries categorized as ergonomic MSDs. The employer’s total recordable injury rate at the Fairfield facility was nearly four times higher from 2020 to 2023 than the industry average of 5.4 per 100 workers for grocery and related wholesale products employers.
OSHA investigators found that workers at the facility performed manual material-handling lifting tasks that involved repeated hazardous forceful exertions and awkward postures, which placed them at risk for lower-back injuries.
Last year, the agency cited an Amazon warehouse in Logan Township, New Jersey, that required employees to perform tasks leading to bodily stress that had caused or were likely to cause MSDs. OSHA cited Amazon for ergonomic hazards, proposing penalties totaling $15,625, and issued a hazard alert letter regarding additional ergonomic hazards in the warehouse.
OSHA recently cited a Fremont, Nebraska, farm cooperative and proposed $36,873 in fines for exposing workers in a palletizing area to ergonomic hazards. Investigators found that the company required workers to manually lift boxes weighing up to 99 pounds from a palletizing conveyor onto pallets at floor level and stack them up to nine boxes high. According to the agency, the frequency and duration of lifts, weights lifted, repeated motions, forced exertions, and irregular postures all exposed employees to a risk of injury.
Falls from height
OSHA’s construction industry standards covering fall hazards include Fall Protection—General Requirements and Training Requirements, Ladders, and Scaffolds. All four made OSHA’s “top 10” list for 2024. In addition to the 6,307 violations of the Fall Protection—General Requirements standard cited, OSHA also cited violations of other fall-related standards, including the following:
- Ladders (§1926.1053): 2,573 violations;
- Fall Protection—Training Requirements (§1926.503): 2,050 violations; and
- Scaffolding (§1926.451): 1,873 violations.
Falls resulted in 865 deaths in 2022, according to the NSC’s analysis of BLS injury, illness, and fatality data. Falls from height are one of the construction industry’s “Fatal Four” safety hazards—the leading causes of death for construction workers—along with caught-in or -between, electrocution, and struck-by hazards. Falls to a lower level cost employers $5.68 billion a year in medical costs and lost wages, according to Liberty Mutual’s Workplace Safety Index.
Last year, OSHA launched a National Emphasis Program (NEP) of outreach and enforcement to address fall-from-height hazards across all industries. In addition to programmed inspections, the NEP’s procedures allow OSHA compliance safety and health officers (CSHOs) to open inspections whenever they observe someone working at heights during their normal workday travel or during other OSHA inspections.
OSHA citations for fall protection violations often yield six-figure penalties.
A Missouri roofing company was cited this spring for illegally exposing roofing workers to the dangers of fall hazards five times in five weeks at six residential building sites and faced $258,063 in OSHA fines.
Inspectors opened investigations after observing that the employer allowed its employees to work on roofs without required fall protection equipment at separate building sites. The agency alleged that the company allowed employees to work without protection at heights greater than 6 feet, didn’t have a competent person inspect and evaluate jobsite hazards daily, and failed to train workers to recognize hazards or prevent falls.
Mechanical hazards
In FY 2024, OSHA cited 2,443 violations of its control of hazardous energy, or “lockout/tagout,” standard (§1910.147) and 1,541 violations of the machine guarding standard (§1910.212). In 2020, OSHA revised its NEP for amputation hazards in manufacturing, targeting employers with enforcement of its lockout/tagout and machine guarding standards.
A lack of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) controls can lead workers to become caught in running equipment or machinery during maintenance or cleaning. The NSC analysis of BLS data found 54 deaths in 2022 and nearly 18,000 DART cases from 2021 to 2022 resulting from workers being caught in running machinery. Exposure to electricity led to 145 deaths in 2022 and nearly 4,000 DART cases from 2021 to 2022.
A lack of machine guarding during regular operation resulted in 35 deaths in 2022 and almost 27,000 DART cases from 2021 to 2022, according to the NSC. Additionally, injuries involving “caught in or compressed by equipment or objects” cost employers $2.05 billion a year, according to Liberty Mutual.
Citations for lockout/tagout and machine guarding violations can also result in six-figure OSHA penalties.
A Sealy, Texas, manufacturer was recently fined $253,750 after an employee suffered serious arm injuries while trying to clear debris during the manufacturing of copper alloy products.
Agency investigators determined that an employee suffered serious injuries resulting in a partial arm amputation. While attempting to remove debris, the employee’s right hand was caught between a conveyor belt and a rack holding 15 1-ton copper coils.
In addition to a lack of required machine guards, agency inspectors found the company hadn’t developed energy control (lockout/tagout) procedures. The agency issued citations for 24 serious safety and health violations.
In May, OSHA announced a Wisconsin commercial baking facility had been fined $262,953 for two repeat, six serious, and two other-than-serious violations.
OSHA investigators cited the employer’s failures to train employees in lockout/tagout energy control procedures, provide adequate machine guarding, require the use of hand protection, enter details on the injury log, and report an employee’s hospitalization.
OSHA opened an investigation into an employee’s disabling injuries, which the company failed to report, as required. Inspectors determined that the incident occurred as the employee adjusted a sensor in a bread pattern-forming machine.
An earlier investigation into how workers at the same facility suffered amputation and laceration injuries determined that the company exposed employees to hazards by failing to use and follow lockout/tagout procedures for machine safety. OSHA’s review of the company’s overall safety and health management systems found that the employer’s average DART rate for 2020 to 2022 was more than 160% higher than the BLS’s 2021 nationwide average for commercial bakeries.
Also in May, a Chicago Heights, Illinois, manufacturer of medical glass bottles and vials was cited for one repeat and four serious violations and faced $145,415 in OSHA fines.
Agency investigators had returned to the Chicago Heights facility on January 31 to verify compliance after inspections in October and December 2022 found workers were exposed to machine hazards. According to OSHA, the company had continued to fail to train its employees in machine safety procedures. Violations cited after the January 31 inspection included the following:
- Not training each authorized employee who performs and/or assists with service and maintenance tasks, including mold changes on lines and bottle machines;
- Failing to follow machine-specific energy control (lockout/tagout) procedures during a mold change; and
- Exposing workers to an unguarded chain and sprocket on a crusher machine.
Failing to protect workers from fall and machine hazards can yield substantial OSHA violations and fines, as well as hefty workers’ compensation costs. While ergonomic hazards rarely result in large OSHA fines, workers’ pain and suffering from back injuries can be very costly.