Every year, OSHA mails a letter to about 15,000 employers who run high-hazard worksites, warning them that their most recent annual injury and illness rates were well above average. According to OSHA,
For every 100 full-time workers, the 15,000 employers had 4.5 or more injuries or illnesses which resulted in days away from work, restricted work or job transfer. The national average is 2.0.
The letters went out in March, but I just got around to digging into the list of recipients (zip file), and thought I’d share some analysis that I haven’t seen anywhere else. Sorting the list by industry code, I put together a chart of the industries that received the most total letters -- down through the top 10 percent of them. The chart gives some additional detail (like the percent of surveyed employers who received letters in each industry), but here’s the rub:
These data, in other words, show where a lot of the injuries and illnesses are occurring (keep in mind also that some of these industries are far bigger than others).
The letters are, for the most part, a stern warning. The 15,000 employers that received a letter were culled from a list of 80,000 employers who submitted injury and illness data to the agency under the OSHA Data Initiative survey. The ODI asks for injury and illness data from 100,000 employers with more than 40 employees, in a limited number of industries. Without getting into the many details (pdf), each year over 4,000 of the 80,000 ODI respondents are added to OSHA’s primary inspections list through the Site-Specific Targeting program. Although the 4,000 primary targets do not necessarily overlap with the 15,000 letter recipients, no employer wants to receive a personal missive from the head of OSHA.
The letters are intended to put industries on notice that there’s a problem, and that OSHA is paying attention. And clearly some industries and employers are in need of a wake-up call. If OSHA releases the list of letter recipients again next year, we’ll see if that’s the case.
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Matt Shudtz | November 10, 2010
Every year, OSHA mails a letter to about 15,000 employers who run high-hazard worksites, warning them that their most recent annual injury and illness rates were well above average. According to OSHA, For every 100 full-time workers, the 15,000 employers had 4.5 or more injuries or illnesses which resulted in days away from work, restricted work […]
Lena Pons | November 9, 2010
A new CPR white paper released today evaluates EPA’s performance in improving its database of human health information on toxic substances. The Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) contains “profiles” with bottom-line health effects information for 540 substances; federal regulators, as well as state and local governments and regulated industry itself, rely on the assessments to make […]
Ben Somberg | November 8, 2010
In a post the other week, Celeste Monforton at The Pump Handle gives a great example of health/safety protection being evaluated the wrong way (“Contractor racks up mine safety violations and unpaid penalties, also wins safety awards.”) Monforton points to a large construction company that seems to be collecting safety awards while simultaneously being cited […]
Yee Huang | November 4, 2010
Today CPR President Rena Steinzor and I submitted comments to EPA and each Chesapeake Bay Watershed jurisdiction regarding their draft Phase I Watershed Implementation Plans. The states, we find, need to improve their plans significantly. After more than 20 years of haplessly stumbling toward restoration, often in fits and starts, EPA and the Bay jurisdictions—Delaware, […]
Rena Steinzor | November 4, 2010
There’s a lot of punditry left to be committed about whether and how the GOP majority in the House and the enhanced GOP minority in the Senate will work with the Obama Administration. I’m not optimistic. But even if the President and House Republicans are able to find some small patch of common ground, the […]
Catherine O'Neill | November 3, 2010
Economics professors at two major universities just issued their reviews of industry-funded assessments of the costs of EPA’s proposed boiler rule (via NRDC). The professors’ conclusions: “the methodology is fundamentally flawed;” “the resulting estimates of job losses are completely invalid;” “the results reported are useless;” “if I were grading this, I would give it an F.” These […]
Ben Somberg | November 3, 2010
Tomorrow, Thursday, the American Constitution Society will host a midday panel discussion about the issues and ideas presented in Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental Law and the Search for Objectivity, by CPR Member Scholar Douglas A. Kysar. The panel includes CPR Board Member Amy Sinden. Drawing insight from a diverse array of sources, including moral philosophy, […]
Alice Kaswan | November 2, 2010
As “Cap-and-Trade Is Dead” continues to echo through the empty halls of Congress, California rolled out its proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade program on Friday. The proposed regulations send a powerful message that, notwithstanding political paralysis at the federal level, the states are proceeding with meaningful climate action. The proposed cap-and-trade program, to be voted on […]
William Funk | November 1, 2010
Cross-posted from ACSblog. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on November 3 in a potentially important preemption case, Williamson v. Mazda Motor of America. In Williamson, a child was fatally injured in a collision when she was sitting in the center rear seat of a Mazda van, secured by a lap belt. The two other […]