OSHA Inspections and Citations in 2009
Federal and state-plan OSHA inspections, citations and penalties recorded in 2009.
OSHA and state-plan agencies opened 111,434 inspections in 2009, 4.8% more than in 2008, and issued 253,305 citation items carrying $141,677,081 in current penalties. California recorded the most inspections (9,521), followed by Washington and Oregon. Hazard Communication (1910.1200) was the most cited standard, with 14,709 citations. Planned inspections were the most common type (65,445), followed by complaint inspections (16,596).
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 | 14,709 | $2,074,510 |
| 2 | 1926.451Scaffolding - General Requirements | 12,363 | $9,747,098 |
| 3 | 1926.501Fall Protection - Duty to Have Fall Protection | 10,626 | $11,355,108 |
| 4 | 1910.305Electrical - Wiring Methods, Components, and Equipment | 9,590 | $2,446,482 |
| 5 | 1910.134Respiratory Protection | 8,002 | $1,847,854 |
| 6 | 1910.303Electrical - General Requirements | 7,550 | $2,280,693 |
| 7 | 1910.147Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout) | 6,217 | $4,307,820 |
| 8 | 1910.178Powered Industrial Trucks | 5,411 | $2,424,330 |
| 9 | 1910.212General Requirements for All Machines (Machine Guarding) | 4,794 | $4,170,762 |
| 10 | 1926.1053Ladders (Construction) | 4,712 | $2,524,702 |
Federal standards combine all of their subsections.
See the top 50 standards cited in 2009 →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 2009
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 2009
How many OSHA inspections were opened in 2009?
111,434 federal and state-plan inspections were opened in 2009.
Which OSHA standard was cited most in 2009?
Hazard Communication (1910.1200), with 14,709 citation items issued in 2009.
Which state had the most OSHA inspections in 2009?
California, with 9,521 inspections opened, followed by Washington (8,335).
How does 2009 compare with 2008?
Inspections opened went from 106,376 to 111,434 (+4.8%). Citation items issued went from 251,384 to 253,305 (+0.8%).
Explore OSHA Analysis
All years
Having OSHA inspection records is common for businesses in regulated industries.
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.