OSHA announces site-specific targeting plan

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has begun the next round of inspections under the agency's Site-Specific Targeting Program. Under the program, OSHA will inspect 3,000 worksites that reported high injury and illness rates for the year 2000. Employers who reported 14 or more injuries or illnesses resulting in lost workdays or restricted activity for every 100 employees can anticipate a comprehensive safety and health inspection in the next year.

In determining which worksites to inspect, OSHA will use information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2001 Data Collection Initiative to identify those employers reporting a lost workday injury and illness rate of 14.0 or higher. However, worksites with a lost workday rate of 14.0 or higher that were inspected under the SST-2000 or SST-2001 program will not be reinspected this year.

Finally, OSHA will randomly inspect 200 workplaces that reported low injury and illness rates (from zero to eight) and add them to the inspection list in order to determine the degree of compliance with OSHA's injury and illness reporting requirements. These inspections will be limited to verification of recordkeeping statistics unless the lost workday rate is recalculated above 8.0, in which case a comprehensive inspection will be conducted.

For additional information, phone Mike McCarthy at 703-838-1905; his e-mail address is [email protected].