PSM Regulation Citations: Trends in OSHA PSM Enforcement

Since OSHA began issuing citations under the Process Safety Management (PSM) standard (29 CFR 1910.119), the relative frequency of citations related to some subsections of the regulations has increased dramatically, while the grequency of others has decreased just as dramatically. Has OSHA changed its focus over time? Will there be new trends in the future? These issues can be better understood by looking at citation history and the continuing deadlines built into the regulation.

I. OSHA PSM Citations From May 1992 to May 1995

Federal and State OSHA Programs cited 384 establishments for 1,843 violations of the PSM standard during the first 36 months after its effective date (May 26, 1992). This reflects an average of approximately 5 violations per PSM-cited inspection, covering the full range of inspection types (regularly scheduled, complaints, catastrophes, etc.). Table 1 lists the total numbers of cited violations under each of the 14 subsections of the PSM regulation.

Table 1: OSHA PSm Enforcement (All 14 Subsections)