In the US, OSHA released it’s top 10 most cited violations for 2010. They were:
1. Scaffolding, General
2. Fall Protection
3. Hazard Communication
4. Respiratory Protection
5. Ladders
6. Lockout/Tagout
7. Electrical, Wiring Methods
8. Powered Industrial Trucks
9. Electrical, General
10. Machine Guarding
These violations make up nearly half of all violations.
In Oct 2010 the 2009 work-related OSH claims were released by the ACC.
In 2009 (all figures are provisional unless stated otherwise):
· Sprains and strains were the most common type of work-related injury claim.
· 94,400 claims were made for sprain and strain injuries (44 percent of all claims).
· 213,000 claims were made for work-related injuries.
· 71 percent of work-related injury claims were for males (an incidence rate of 142 claims per 1,000 FTEs), greater than that for females (73 claims per 1,000 FTEs).
· Workers aged 45–54 made more claims for work-related injuries than any other age group, with 50,100 claims (24 percent of all claims).
· Trades workers, plant and machine operators and assemblers, and agriculture and fishery workers made 48 percent of work-related injury claims.
If we could tie in the US with the NZ data, I am sure we would find NZ had a similar number of OSH violations to the US, and the US a similar injury category breakdown. New Zealand can learn a lot from leveraging off the OSH research of the larger countries.