OSHA Inspections and Citations in 1972
Federal and state-plan OSHA inspections, citations and penalties recorded in 1972.
OSHA and state-plan agencies opened 17,164 inspections in 1972, and issued 49,265 citation items carrying $1,202,759 in current penalties. New York recorded the most inspections (2,072), followed by Ohio and New Jersey. 1910.309 was the most cited standard, with 4,007 citations. Planned inspections were the most common type (10,750), followed by follow-up inspections (2,615).
Inspections and states count by year opened. Citations, penalties and standards count by year issued. Do not add the two groups together.
Most cited standards
| # | Standard | Citations | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1910.309 | 4,007 | $62,549 |
| 2 | 1910.219Mechanical Power-Transmission Apparatus | 3,463 | $49,401 |
| 3 | 1910.213Woodworking Machinery Requirements | 2,890 | $62,565 |
| 4 | 1910.157Portable Fire Extinguishers | 2,848 | $18,986 |
| 5 | 1910.212General Requirements for All Machines (Machine Guarding) | 2,832 | $62,343 |
| 6 | 1910.22 | 2,535 | $29,283 |
| 7 | 1910.23 | 2,442 | $45,114 |
| 8 | 1910.252General requirements | 1,885 | $23,325 |
| 9 | 1910.215Abrasive Wheel Machinery | 1,754 | $12,545 |
| 10 | 1910.178Powered Industrial Trucks | 1,413 | $26,715 |
Federal standards combine all of their subsections.
See the top 50 standards cited in 1972 →Inspections opened by type
Type labels as defined in DOL's OSHA enforcement data.
Inspections opened by state
State Plan: OSHA-approved plan covering private and public employers. Public only: State Plan for state and local government workers only. No plan: federal OSHA has jurisdiction over private sector workplaces. Source: osha.gov/stateplans.
Other OSHA records for 1972
Severe injury reports
OSHA's severe injury reporting requirement began on January 1, 2015.
Injury and illness summaries (Form 300A)
OSHA has collected Form 300A summary data since 2016.
Inspections opened per year, 1970 to 2026
Questions about 1972
How many OSHA inspections were opened in 1972?
17,164 federal and state-plan inspections were opened in 1972.
Which OSHA standard was cited most in 1972?
1910.309, with 4,007 citation items issued in 1972.
Which state had the most OSHA inspections in 1972?
New York, with 2,072 inspections opened, followed by Ohio (1,039).
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Data Source and Methodology
DOL source dataData on this page comes from the U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA enforcement database, accessed via the DOL public data API. Errors in data processing or establishment grouping are possible. Penalty amounts are the latest on record and may differ from the initial assessment or the final amount after informal conference, settlement or judicial review. Company pages group records by employer name, city and state as OSHA reported them, not by legal entity (methodology). Found an error? Report it. This product uses the DOL Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the DOL. For official and authoritative records, visit osha.gov.
SafetyRecord also offers this data as an API and bulk files, with inspections grouped by establishment and a record of how citations change after OSHA publishes them: Data & API.