U.S. OSHA notifies workplaces of high injury and illness rates

Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) surveys a person or firm that employs workers to collect workplace injury and illness information it uses to recognize employers whose injury and illness statistics are considerably higher than the average. 15,000 workplaces with the highest numbers of injuries and illnesses has been forwarded a letter resulting in days off from work, subject to restriction work activities or job transfers, the DART rate.

A person or firm that employs workers receiving the letters also were provided copies of their injury and illness information, together with a data of the most frequently cited OSHA standards for their specific industry. The OSHA letter offered help to minimized workplace injuries and illnesses by proposing, the use of OSHA’s free safety and health consultation services for small industry provided through the United States.

The federal agency identified businesses with the state’s highest rates of work area injuries and illnesses through business owner-reported information from a 2009 survey of about 100,000 job sites. Work area taking notifications had DART rates more than twice the standard average among all U.S. workplaces.

OSHA’s free consultation program is available to assist employers with 250 or fewer employees addressing safety and health in the work area. This program is managed by OSHA and separately operated from OSHA’s constraint program. In addition, the federal agency consultant can assist in enhancing and implementing a safety and hazardous free system for the workplace.