OSHA Workplace Safety README Updated September 2012 The OSHA Workplace Safety database consists of all federal inspections at companies in the U.S. and its territories between 1972 and Oct. 31, 2012. The data include a great deal of detail on each inspection, including violations, accidents and penalities. For additional details or to verify facts, you can obtain copies of the actual reports. ***IMPORTANT NOTES In a previous NICAR update of this data (April 2009), the SEX and AGE fields in the Accid table are blank. This is because OSHA redacted such info when sending over the data, saying "If an individual is deceased you may provide age and sex. If an individual is only injured we do not provide age and sex pursuant to Exemption 6 of the FOIA. 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(6)." After negotiating with OSHA, NICAR was able to obtain sex and age info for the cases where either the victim is deceased or the case is closed. TABLES We provide these data tables with information about OSHA inspections: Osha - main table with company name, address, date of inspection, etc. If you get the entire country, there's a number after the word OSHA, since it's too big to put on one CD. Viol - violations from each inspection. If you get the entire country, there's a number after the word VIOL, since it's too big to put on one CD. Accid - details about accident victims Hazsub - hazardous substances involved Debt - status of debt History - outlines a history of any changes in penalty Admpay - a record of collecting administrative fees or penalties Prog - special programs the inspection might be involved in Relact - whether the inspection is related to another inspection or other action Optinfo - optional information A listing of states, by file (if you've received the entire U.S.): OSHA1, VIOL1 -- AK,AL,AR,AS,AZ,CA,CO,CT,CZ,DC,DE,FL,FN,GA,GU,HI,IA,ID OSHA2, VIOL2 -- IN,JQ,KS,KY,LA,MA,MD,ME,MI,MN,MO,MP,MQ,MS,MT,NC,ND,NE,NH OSHA3, VIOL3 -- NJ,NM,NV,NY,OH,OK,OR,PA,PI OSHA4, VIOL4 -- PR,RI,SC,SD,TN,TX,UT,VA,VI,VT,WA,WI,WV,WY,IL All other files include all states. The tables can be joined using the ACTIVITYNO field. You may notice that some numbers in the ACTIVITYNO field appear more than once. This number is supposed to be a unique identifier per OSHA inspection. OSHA stores each inspection as one single record in their database. When they create files for public use, they are forced to split large records into several records. The problem occurs when an inspection has more violations than one record can contain. In this case, they will begin a new record with the same unique identifying number. All of the inspection information will be the same, what you will notice is different is the violation information included. You can find online OSHA regulations, the OSHA Act, and field inspection reference manual at the following Web site: http://www.osha.gov/comp-links.html. You can also search http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/index.html for more recent information on specific inspections. Here are the tables and more information on what they contain: *Accidents (ACCID): Names of those injured, identifies the task that was being performed when the accident occurred, indicates whether a hazardous substance contributed to the accident, lists which body parts were injured, and indicates the degree of the injury -- for example, whether it was fatal. *Hazardous Substances (HAZSUB): Describes accidents that involve hazardous substances but that do not involve people. *OSHA (OSHA): Gives company sites, previous violations, the number of workers employed at the site in the previous 12 months and other OSHA activity at the sites, such as inspections or complaints. *Violations (VIOL): Details penalties, types of violations -- willful, repeat, serious, etc. -- and the number of employees exposed to the danger. *Special Programs (PROG): A description of any special programs -- local or national -- related to the specific inspection. Also included is documentation to explain further. *Related Activity (RELACT) - If the inspection is related to another inspection, then the ACTIVITYNO of that inspection is listed. Other types of actions that might be related include Accidents, Complaints or Referrals. *Optional Information (OPTINFO) - Indicates additional information recorded for the inspection. *Debt (DEBT) - Information about a debt, including interest, fees and the outcome of the debt. *Event History (HISTORY) - The history of penalties or failure to abate, including the amount and reason the amount was changed *Administrative or Pay (ADMPAY) - A record of payment of administrative fees, penalties or failure-to-abate charges. LAYOUTS, LOOKUPS AND CODES The text files (Accid.txt, Hazsub.txt, Osha.txt, Viol.txt, Prog.txt, Relact.txt, Optinfo.txt, Debt.txt, History.txt, Admpay.txt) are the layouts for the 10 tables. These files also contain codes for each table. Over the years, we've discovered a few missing definitions for codes; we suspect most of those are internal typos at OSHA offices. The remaining files (in the lookups folder) contain additional coding information for all of the tables. These files were current for OSHA as of 2011, but some haven't changed since at least 1995. Use the text files in the folder LAYOUTS to find which file goes with which table: ACC -- Accident Victim Attribute Code Values FDA -- Federal Agency Code Values HZS -- Hazardous Substance Code Values OCC -- Occupational Code Values RID -- OSHA Office (Report ID or RID) Codes SCC -- State-City, State-County Code Values SIC -- Standard Industrial Classification Codes NAICS -- North American Industry Classification System Codes NEPTABLE -- Codes and descriptions for national special programs LEPTABLE -- Codes and descriptions for local special programs OPTINFO.DOC -- Codes and descriptons for optional information STD -- OSHA Federal Part-Section Standards Codes Some additional OSHA documents: osha2098.pdf -- general information about OSHA inspections, including contact information about OSHA offices. drvdfileinfo.doc -- a 2007 document with a file description, similar to the text record layouts. The record, or "segment" counts were made at a different time in than the data was provided, so those counts will not match our record counts. They are close but not quite. dr$$insp.doc -- the mainframe-derived "record layout" that is the basis of our processing the tape-stored, variable-length data. WORDS OF CAUTION 1) This database is quite large. If you're looking at the entire country, be sure you have hardware and software that can manage the information. 2) Examine penalty fields carefully. There are several different fields, each with a different meaning -- In the OSHA table: PENREMIT -- This is the sum of penalties the company has paid on all violations up to the time NICAR received the data. (Note: this amount may be lower than the amount in PENNCURRENT because it reflects only the amount OSHA has received, not the amount the agency expects to receive.) FTAREMIT -- this is the final amount in failure to abate penalties paid by the company. TOTPENLTY -- This is the total current amount in penalties issued. (this amount may have been result of negotiations between company and OSHA.) TOTALFTA -- This is the total current amount in failure to abate penalties issued. (this amount could also have been negotiated) In the VIOLS table: PENINITIAL -- This is the initial amount of penalties issued after the violation is assessed, but before appeals and reductions. PENCURRENT -- This represents the total amount OSHA has collected or expects to collect. This does not mean that OSHA will actually collect this money. (Sometimes payment is not complete due bankruptcy or other reasons.) This amount can be different from the one originally assessed, (found in the PENINITIAL field), because it reflects any changes made to the total due to negotiations, reductions, etc. FTAPEN -- Amount of failure to abate penalties issued for that violation. In the HISTORY table: FTAPEN -- FTA penalty at the time current event/activity applied to record HISTPEN -- Penalty at the time current activity/event applied to record In the ADMPAY table: PENAMT -- Amount of payment received for assessed penalties FTAAMT -- Amount of payment received for failure-to-abate charge 3) Information can change if an inspection hasn't been closed yet. Check for updated information at http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/index.html. If you have further questions, please call NICAR at 573-884-7332 or 573-884-7711. A contact number for OSHA about the data: (202) 693-1700. It would be a good idea to contact a local OSHA office, too. OSHA STORIES AND TIPSHEETS The New York times won a 2004 Pulitzer Prize for public services with a series of stories investigating companies where workers have died due to the negligence of their employers. As the investigations revealed many of these companies did not adhere to the safety regulations set up by OSHA. These articles reveal that five officials from McWane Inc. one of the companies that was investigated were later indicted. The reporters describe OSHA as "a toothless tiger" that does not always take these companies to task. (IRE Resource Center story #20850) The KC Star analyze the Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspection database for the Kansas City metropolitan area, reviewed public records and interviewed more than 100 people in order to determine how well OSHA protects workers. The 2005 story found that OSHA fines employees in workers' deaths less than it should and downgrades its most serious violations in workers' deaths, hurting workers who are trying to sue employees. OSHA is behind in its safety standards. (Story #22226) At the 2002 San Francisco conference, Mary Fricker of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Diana Hembree of Consumer Health Interactive, and Natalya Shulyakovskaya of the Orange County Register detailed ideas for reporting on worker safety. The tipsheets from this panel offer relevant Web addresses, a list of federal, state and local sources for covering occupational health, as well as story ideas. The tipsheets are #1608 (Shulyakovskaya), #1757 (Hembree) and #1758 (Fricker). A computer-assisted investigation by the Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.) in 2001 revealed that state government agencies are among the most common violators of worker safety standards, but - unlike private entities - they never get fined. Within the story is a list of the top violators in the Fredericksburg area in the past 25 years. Among the top ten violators are the Virginia Department of Transportation, the City of Fredericksburg and the County of Stafford. Story #18656 A five-part Newsday investigation in 2001 found that New York has the nation's highest rate of immigrants killed in the workplace. The series also uncovered that government agencies frequently fail to investigate deaths, provide enforcement for violations and offer timely compensation for victims and their families. Story #18983 A computer-assisted investigation by Dateline NBC in 1995 revealed a shocking pattern of lax enforcement at the agency charged with protecting worker safety. Multiple examples show that OSHA is reducing fines 99% of the time, collecting only 33 cents on the dollar. The story of Patrick Hayes, killed in a corn silo, was chosen to highlight how OSHA can save on fines and cri The Arizona Republic examined OSHA inspection records and took an in-depth look at the estate workers' compensation system. Using an OSHA database, the paper established the median fine assessed in connection with a workplace death in which a serious safety violation was found - $3,000. The project also included several sidebars that profiled workers that were killed on the job and showed the dramatic impact on their families. Story #14944. In 1995, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch analyzed the last 10 years of OSHA inspection records, and revealed that the agency does use high initial fines to get employers' attention, but then the fines are routinely reduced for those who cooperate and improve conditions. Story #12384. In a November 1995 Uplink article, Jo Craven details how journalists have used the OSHA data, highlighting the advantages and pitfalls in the database. At the 1992 Portland conference, Mike Casey and Russ Carollo of the Dayton Daily News outlined how to proceed in a workplace safety project. This tipsheet includes a source list, background on Occupational Safety and Health Administration, computer vs. non-computer reporting and public records. Also included is who to write for the OSHA database, institutions that have the OSHA tapes and can perform analysis, sample federal inspection list, reported occupational injury incidence rates by industry. Casey and Carollo's IRE award winning series on OSHA is Morgue File #8223 and their tipsheet is #31. minal prosecutions, despite findings of deliberate violations of worker safety. (Aug. 1, 1995) See tipsheet entry #479 for more information on Hayes' case and FOIA problems encountered. Story #12472 To order these stories and tipsheets, contact the IRE Resource Center by phone (573)882-3364 or email (rescntr@ire.org).