OSHA Inspections and Citations in 2008
Federal and state-plan OSHA inspections, citations and penalties recorded in 2008.
OSHA and state-plan agencies opened 106,376 inspections in 2008, 2.4% more than in 2007, and issued 251,384 citation items carrying $135,974,947 in current penalties. California recorded the most inspections (10,569), followed by Washington and Oregon. Hazard Communication (1910.1200) was the most cited standard, with 14,724 citations. Planned inspections were the most common type (60,036), followed by complaint inspections (16,598).
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 | 14,724 | $2,060,479 |
| 2 | 1926.451Scaffolding - General Requirements | 13,813 | $10,351,319 |
| 3 | 1926.501Fall Protection - Duty to Have Fall Protection | 10,887 | $11,926,904 |
| 4 | 1910.305Wiring methods, components, and equipment for general use | 9,202 | $2,434,522 |
| 5 | 1910.134Respiratory Protection | 8,142 | $1,810,897 |
| 6 | 1910.303 | 7,193 | $2,196,384 |
| 7 | 1910.147The control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) | 6,885 | $4,575,777 |
| 8 | 1910.178Powered Industrial Trucks | 5,592 | $2,690,840 |
| 9 | 1910.212General Requirements for All Machines (Machine Guarding) | 4,915 | $4,340,279 |
| 10 | 1910.157Portable Fire Extinguishers | 4,416 | $453,946 |
Federal standards combine all of their subsections.
See the top 50 standards cited in 2008 →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 2008
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 2008
How many OSHA inspections were opened in 2008?
106,376 federal and state-plan inspections were opened in 2008.
Which OSHA standard was cited most in 2008?
Hazard Communication (1910.1200), with 14,724 citation items issued in 2008.
Which state had the most OSHA inspections in 2008?
California, with 10,569 inspections opened, followed by Washington (6,385).
How does 2008 compare with 2007?
Inspections opened went from 103,896 to 106,376 (+2.4%). Citation items issued went from 254,609 to 251,384 (-1.3%).
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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.