Trade News Release
Monday, April 19, 1999
Contact: Frank Kane 202-693-1999

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced a new site specific plan for targeting 2,200 high-hazard workplaces for inspections.

"This plan continues OSHA's emphasis on reducing injuries and illnesses in the workplace," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Charles N. Jeffress. "By focusing on worksites with the highest injury and illness rates, we target our resources where they are most needed. These will be unannounced comprehensive safety and health inspections. Workplaces with high injury and illness rates are on notice that they will likely undergo an inspection."

The new Site Specific Targeting (SST) Plan, directive number 99-3 (CPL2), replaces OSHA's April 1998 interim plan for inspection targeting and will initially cover about 2,200 worksites with a lost workday injury and illness rate (LWDII) above 16.0 per 100 full-time workers. These sites reported 1997 injury and illness data to OSHA in 1998 in a survey covering 80,000 workplaces. The national average LWDII rate for private industry in 1997 was 3.3.

An exception is made in the targeting plan for establishments in Skilled Nursing Care Facilities, Intermediate Care Facilities and Nursing and Personal Care, Not Elsewhere Classified. This group of three industries contains many more establishments than other classifications on the list. To avoid over-concentration of inspections in this group, only the top 20% of the establishments in these standard industrial classifications with LWDII rates over 16.0 will be included on the list. All workplaces on the targeting list are to be inspected by Dec. 31, 1999.

The 23 states and territories that operate their own occupational safety and health programs are not required to adopt the site-specific plan, but are required to operate their own inspection targeting systems.

OSHA adopted an interim targeting plan last year following a court suit which blocked use of its Cooperative Compliance Program (CCP). On April 9, 1999, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled against CCP in the suit, which was brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other organizations. Following the ruling, Secretary Herman pledged that OSHA would continue to target the most dangerous workplaces for inspection.

Standard Industrial Classification codes for the 80,000 establishments covered in the OSHA survey included:

• 20-39 MANUFACTURING

• 2411 LOGGING

• 0783 ORNAMENTAL SHRUB AND TREE SERVICES

• 4210 TRUCKING AND COURIER SERVICES, EXCEPT AIR

• 4220 PUBLIC WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE

• 4230 TRUCKING TERMINAL FACILITIES

• 4490 WATER TRANSPORTATION SERVICES

• 4510 AIR TRANSPORTATION, SCHEDULED

• 4580 AIRPORTS, FLYING FIELDS, AND SERVICES

• 4783 PACKING AND CRATING

• 4953 REFUSE SYSTEMS

• 5010 MOTOR VEHICLES, PARTS, AND SUPPLIES

• 5050 METALS AND MINERALS, EXCEPT PETROLEUM

• 5093 SCRAP AND WASTE MATERIALS

• 5140 GROCERIES AND RELATED PRODUCTS

• 5180 BEER, WINE AND DISTILLED BEVERAGES

• 5210 LUMBER AND OTHER BUILDING MATERIALS

• 8050 NURSING AND PERSONAL CARE FACILITIES

The text of this news release is on the Internet World Wide Web at http://www.osha.gov. Information on this news release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-693-1999.