Employment & Labor Insider

NOTE FROM ROBIN: This is the third and final installment of David Smith's series on the latest developments from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (But we hope he'll be back soon!)

In August, OSHA issued a revised version of its 2006 Directive on the Agency’s National Emphasis Program on Amputations that includes an updated list of 80 industries, primarily in manufacturing, that are targeted for inspection based on the high number of amputations that have occurred in those industries since 2006.

The list of industries includes 49 that have been included for the first time. For the most part, these are various manufacturing industries.

The targeted industries are identified by their six-digit North American Industry Classification System codes. Inspections under the Program focus on any machinery or equipment likely to cause amputations, and according to OSHA’s press release on the revision “typically include an evaluation of employee exposures during operations such as: clearing jams; cleaning, oiling or greasing machines or machine pans; and locking out machinery to prevent accidental start-up.”

In Fiscal Year 2013 the amputation program resulted in 1,500 OSHA inspections and approximately 2,800 citations. According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, manufacturing employers reported that 2,000 workers suffered amputations in FY 2013, and the rate of amputations in the manufacturing sector was more than twice as high (1.7 per 10,000 full-time employees) as that of all private industry (0.7 per 10,000 full-time employees).