OSHA Inspections and Citations in 2012
Federal and state-plan OSHA inspections, citations and penalties recorded in 2012.
OSHA and state-plan agencies opened 102,055 inspections in 2012, 1.6% fewer than in 2011, and issued 215,783 citation items carrying $190,443,426 in current penalties. California recorded the most inspections (8,797), followed by Michigan and New York. Hazard Communication (1910.1200) was the most cited standard, with 13,155 citations. Planned inspections were the most common type (53,078), followed by complaint inspections (20,207).
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 | 13,155 | $4,114,901 |
| 2 | 1926.501Fall Protection - Duty to Have Fall Protection | 11,845 | $23,970,669 |
| 3 | 1926.451Scaffolding - General Requirements | 7,963 | $11,236,633 |
| 4 | 1910.305Wiring methods, components, and equipment for general use | 7,500 | $4,176,091 |
| 5 | 1910.134Respiratory Protection | 7,298 | $3,037,513 |
| 6 | 1910.147The control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) | 5,912 | $9,135,584 |
| 7 | 1910.303 | 5,879 | $4,165,588 |
| 8 | 1910.178Powered Industrial Trucks | 5,214 | $4,826,932 |
| 9 | 1926.1053Ladders (Construction) | 4,471 | $4,896,091 |
| 10 | 1910.212General Requirements for All Machines (Machine Guarding) | 4,411 | $8,258,653 |
Federal standards combine all of their subsections.
See the top 50 standards cited in 2012 →Inspections opened by type
Type labels as defined in DOL's OSHA enforcement data.
Inspections opened by state
89 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 2012
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 2012
How many OSHA inspections were opened in 2012?
102,055 federal and state-plan inspections were opened in 2012.
Which OSHA standard was cited most in 2012?
Hazard Communication (1910.1200), with 13,155 citation items issued in 2012.
Which state had the most OSHA inspections in 2012?
California, with 8,797 inspections opened, followed by Michigan (5,878).
How does 2012 compare with 2011?
Inspections opened went from 103,745 to 102,055 (-1.6%). Citation items issued went from 226,086 to 215,783 (-4.6%).
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All years
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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.