OSHA Inspections and Citations in 1987
Federal and state-plan OSHA inspections, citations and penalties recorded in 1987.
OSHA and state-plan agencies opened 130,399 inspections in 1987, 3.3% fewer than in 1986, and issued 298,712 citation items carrying $22,075,617 in current penalties. New York recorded the most inspections (12,097), followed by Indiana and Texas. Hazard Communication (1910.1200) was the most cited standard, with 25,232 citations. Planned inspections were the most common type (82,535), followed by complaint inspections (16,623).
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 | 1910.1200Hazard Communication | 25,232 | $509,298 |
| 2 | 1926.404Electrical - Wiring Design and Protection (Construction) | 11,149 | $770,029 |
| 3 | 1926.500Scope, application, and definitions applicable to this subpart | 9,072 | $1,301,648 |
| 4 | 1910.219Mechanical Power-Transmission Apparatus | 9,003 | $798,494 |
| 5 | 1926.451Scaffolding - General Requirements | 8,919 | $1,321,525 |
| 6 | 1910.305Wiring methods, components, and equipment for general use | 7,760 | $159,083 |
| 7 | 1910.304Wiring design and protection | 7,122 | $322,541 |
| 8 | 1910.212General Requirements for All Machines (Machine Guarding) | 7,040 | $881,834 |
| 9 | 1910.215Abrasive Wheel Machinery | 6,879 | $174,005 |
| 10 | 1926.405Electrical - Wiring Methods (Construction) | 5,916 | $100,827 |
Federal standards combine all of their subsections.
See the top 50 standards cited in 1987 →Inspections opened by type
Type labels as defined in DOL's OSHA enforcement data.
Inspections opened by state
14 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 1987
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 1987
How many OSHA inspections were opened in 1987?
130,399 federal and state-plan inspections were opened in 1987.
Which OSHA standard was cited most in 1987?
Hazard Communication (1910.1200), with 25,232 citation items issued in 1987.
Which state had the most OSHA inspections in 1987?
New York, with 12,097 inspections opened, followed by Indiana (7,913).
How does 1987 compare with 1986?
Inspections opened went from 134,800 to 130,399 (-3.3%). Citation items issued went from 280,936 to 298,712 (+6.3%).
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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.