OSHA Inspections and Citations in 1979
Federal and state-plan OSHA inspections, citations and penalties recorded in 1979.
OSHA and state-plan agencies opened 60,925 inspections in 1979, 9.2% more than in 1978, and issued 156,093 citation items carrying $14,455,249 in current penalties. New York recorded the most inspections (8,255), followed by Texas and New Jersey. 1910.309 was the most cited standard, with 17,494 citations. Planned inspections were the most common type (22,732), followed by complaint inspections (19,574).
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 | 17,494 | $995,277 |
| 2 | 1910.219Mechanical Power-Transmission Apparatus | 10,681 | $828,758 |
| 3 | 1910.212General Requirements for All Machines (Machine Guarding) | 7,391 | $1,046,368 |
| 4 | 1910.215Abrasive Wheel Machinery | 5,134 | $183,852 |
| 5 | 1910.134Respiratory Protection | 5,028 | $302,867 |
| 6 | 1910.106Flammable Liquids | 4,900 | $223,050 |
| 7 | 1910.217Mechanical Power Presses | 4,562 | $585,404 |
| 8 | 1910.22Walking-Working Surfaces - General Requirements | 4,213 | $199,414 |
| 9 | 1926.500Fall Protection - Scope, Application, and Definitions | 4,169 | $751,294 |
| 10 | 1910.213Woodworking Machinery Requirements | 4,166 | $369,394 |
Federal standards combine all of their subsections.
See the top 50 standards cited in 1979 →Inspections opened by type
Type labels as defined in DOL's OSHA enforcement data.
Inspections opened by state
22 inspections with other or missing state codes are not listed.
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 1979
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 1979
How many OSHA inspections were opened in 1979?
60,925 federal and state-plan inspections were opened in 1979.
Which OSHA standard was cited most in 1979?
1910.309, with 17,494 citation items issued in 1979.
Which state had the most OSHA inspections in 1979?
New York, with 8,255 inspections opened, followed by Texas (5,471).
How does 1979 compare with 1978?
Inspections opened went from 55,808 to 60,925 (+9.2%). Citation items issued went from 150,363 to 156,093 (+3.8%).
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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.