The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, has issued its annual inspection plan under the Site-Specific Targeting 2012 program to direct enforcement resources to workplaces where the highest rates of injuries and illnesses occur.
The SST program is one of OSHA's main programmed inspection plans for high-hazard, non-construction workplaces that have 20 or more workers. The SST plan is based on data collected from a survey of 80,000 establishments in high-hazard industries.
"Through the SST program, we can prevent injuries and illnesses, and save lives by focusing our inspection resources on employers in high-hazard worksites where workers are at greater risk," said David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.
As part of the SST-12 program, OSHA is conducting a study to evaluate the effectiveness of the program based on 1,260 randomly selected establishments.
In addition to the SST program, OSHA implements both national and local emphasis inspection programs,1 which include programmed inspections, to target high-risk hazards and industries. OSHA currently has 11 National Emphasis Programs that intensify inspections on hazards or industries such as lead, silica, shipbreaking, trenching/excavations and process safety management, and approximately 140 Regional and Local Emphasis Programs. Relevant areas covered: “Fabrication of Structured Metal Products (Region III); “Primary Metal Industry”—mostly foundry/metalforming operations (Region VI); and “Auto Body Shops” (Region VII).
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.
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- Local Emphasis Programs (LEPs) are enforcement strategies designed and implemented at the regional office and/or area office levels. These programs are intended to address hazards or industries that pose a particular risk to workers in the office's jurisdiction. The emphasis programs may be implemented by a single area office, or at the regional level (Regional Emphasis Programs), and applied to all of the area offices within the region. Often times, these LEPs will be accompanied by outreach intended to make employers in the area aware of the program as well as the hazards that the programs are designed to reduce or eliminate. This outreach may be in the form of informational mailings, training at local tradeshows, or speeches at meetings of industry groups or labor organizations.
