The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s mission is to ensure workers have safe and healthy working conditions. As such, they conduct workplace inspections regularly and when standard violations are found, citations and monetary penalties are issued.
Below is a list of some of the frequently cited OSHA standards for landscape businesses from October 2022 through September 2023.
Standard 19100132
There were 50 citations for this standard, which calls for personal protective equipment to be provided, used and maintained in a reliable condition whenever hazards or processes are capable of causing injury or impairment.
PPE typically necessary in landscaping applications includes, but is not limited to: gloves; steel-toed boots; hearing, eye, and face protection; hard hats; respirators; and chemical-resistant boots and gloves.
Stress to your team the importance of PPE and outline which tasks require what type of protective equipment. If crew members are consistently not wearing PPE, determine if it is uncomfortable, interfering with their ability to work or if they don’t have the right mindset about safety. All PPE is designed to protect employees’ lives, health and senses.
Another related standard, 19100133, that is frequently violated is eye and face protection. As an employer, you need to ensure workers wear eye protection when exposed to flying particles, liquid chemicals or other threats. Each day, approximately 2,000 U.S. workers suffer job-related eye injuries that require medical treatment.
Make sure workers aren’t substituting regular glasses or sunglasses for safety glasses.
Standard 13101200
If your company utilizes chemicals to treat properties, proper hazard communication is required. All chemicals need to comprehensively list their hazards and the appropriate protective measures.
Chemicals are considered hazardous if they pose a threat to human health, are a physical hazard (flammable, explosive) or have environmental hazards. Make sure your team knows to read product labels before using a chemical and where to find safety data sheets.
Standard 19261153
This standard relates to workers who are at an increased risk of developing serious silica-related diseases. Employers are responsible for taking steps to protect employees from exposure to respirable crystalline silica.
Breathing crystalline-silica dust can cause lung cancer and silicosis, a nonreversible, often-fatal disease. Approximately 250 people in the United States die annually from silicosis, and hundreds more become disabled.
When workers cut brick or stone, or mix or cut concrete, they can be exposed to crystalline-silica dust. Wet-cutting masonry is the best method for reducing airborne silica dust. If wet cutting isn’t available, a vacuum dust collection system should be used.
Don’t use a leaf blower to move dusty material or clean up gravel dust, concrete dust or construction dirt. Instead, use a vacuum or a power broom with water. Provide respirators when dust controls cannot limit exposures to the permissible exposure limit.
Standard 19100028
This standard requires employers to provide protection to employees exposed to fall and falling object hazards. Falls are one of the leading causes of work-related deaths. Falls can be fatal even from heights of 10 feet or less.
Some ways to protect employees from falls are to educate them on when and how to properly use ladders, provide personal fall protection systems and evaluate fall hazards before work begins. Stress to crew members they should not work from heights alone or if a ladder shows excessive wear or damage.
Being struck by falling objects is another risk landscape employees can encounter if they work on a job site where other trades are present on tall buildings or if an arborist is cutting tree limbs.
These hazardous zones should be roped off and head protection should be required when working in these areas.
All of these can seem like common sense safety practices, but it’s easy to let things slip. Be vigilant in putting safety first in your operations to avoid unexpected fines.
