Eye on OSHA: Stone-Shop Inspections Decline in 2011

The Occupational Safety and Heath Administration (OSHA) may be visiting fewer stone fabricators and reducing the number of write-ups, but total penalties for violations are going up.

Inspectors for the federal agency made it to 200 facilities last year, an 11.9% decline from 2010, according to an exclusive Stone Update analysis of OSHA’s on-site reports. The 886 recorded violations also represented a pull-back, decreasing by 15.9% from the previous year.

Other areas also indicated a drop-off in overall national-enforcement levels in 2011, including the number of states where inspections occurred (35, down 18.6%) and the total number of planned inspections (265, down 9.6%).

Inspectors also cited fewer companies for violations specifying silica-dust contamination at stone shops: 17, down 29.2% from 2010.

OSHA fines increased last year, however; the $1.4 million in initial penalties is up 19.6% from 2010. The agency adjusts fines upon follow-up inspections and appeals; the final $819,222 from 2011 is down 3.2%, but the 2010 total also includes a one-time failure-to-abate (FTA) assessment of $100,000 with one company.

Eye on OSHA is an ongoing Stone Update review of inspection reports from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), operating under the federal Department of Labor. Not all violations entail fines; pending fines may be lowered or dropped if conditions are remedied or upon appeal. Source of data: OSHA databases.

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