The top OSHA violations for fiscal year 2018 were recently announced, and for the eighth consecutive year, General Requirements for Fall Protection lands at number one. A new entry not seen before entered the list at No. 10: Personal Protective Equipment — Eye and Face Protection 1926.102 (OSHA citations, 2018).

Speaking at the 2018 National Safety Council (NSC) Congress & Expo, Patrick Kapust, deputy director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, presented the preliminary data for the OSHA top 10. Kapust described the past year at the agency as “enforcement as usual.”

The top seven remained the same from FY 2017. Moving down one slot to No. 9 was Machine Guarding, which was replaced at No. 8 by Fall Protection Training Requirements. Rounding out the list at No. 10 was the newbie Eye and Face Protection. Electrical violations dropped out of the list. The OSHA top 10 was split down the middle, with half being Construction-related violations and the other being General Industry-related violations.

The data below represents the top 10 most frequently violated OSHA standards from October 1, 2017, to September 30, 2018. This data reflects federal OSHA violations only.

1. Fall Protection: 7,216 violations (1926.501)
   2017 violations: 6,887 (1)
2. Hazard Communication: 4,537 violations (1910.1200)
   2017 violations: 4,652 (2)
3. Scaffolding: 3,319 violations (1926.451)
   2017 violations: 3,697 (3)
4. Respiratory Protection: 3.112 violations (1910.134)
   2017 violations: 3,381 (4)
5. Lockout/Tagout: 2,923 violations (1910.147)
   2017 violations: 3,131 (5)
6. Ladders: 2,780 violations (1926.1053)
   2017 violations: 2,567 (6)
7. Powered Industrial Truck: 2,281 violations (1910.178)
   201 violations: 2,349 (7)
8. Fall Protection Training Requirements (1926.503)
   2017 violations: 1,724 (9)
9. Machine Guarding: 1,969 violations (1910.212)
   2017 violations: 2,109 (8)
10. Personal Protective Equipment – Eye and Face Protection: 1,528 violations (1926.102)
    2017 Unranked