Environment & Safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for employee safety and health protection within the workplace. OSHA develops, implements, and enforces regulations, as well as safety and health standards. OSHA works with employers and employees to reduce workplace hazards.

OSHA accomplishes its mission through three basic strategies—effective enforcement; outreach, education, and compliance assistance; as well as partnerships, alliances, and other cooperative and voluntary programs.

OSHA and the Printing Industry
Virtually every commercial lithographic printer in the United States, regardless of size, is required to comply with OSHA standards. There is an incorrect assumption that if a company has fewer than 10 employees, then OSHA’s regulations do not apply. This is not true, but the actual regulatory requirements depend on the number of employees, site-specific operations, work practices, and processes. Printing operations with larger facilities, comprehensive operations, special equipment configurations, or a greater number of employees will find that additional regulations may apply.

The first step in a compliance program is to understand which specific requirements apply. A printing company must evaluate their facility operations in order to determine their compliance status. To assist in these efforts the following resources are available:

• OSHA Compliance 101
  Virtually every commercial lithographic printer located in the U.S., regardless of the size of operation, is required to comply with OSHA standards to some degree. The actual regulatory requirements will depend on the site-specific operations, practices, and processes.

• OSHA Primer
  This simple resource provides an overview of federal OSHA and general industry regulations affecting the printing industry and basic compliance information. It’s a good reference tool for printers who are new to dealing with safety and OSHA regulation or those individuals who simply need a refresher.

• Combustible Dust
  To help keep you safe and free of any red tape, we’ve compiled a short tip sheet on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) combustible dust citation.

• Are You on the 2010 OSHA Hit List?
  Every year since 1996 OSHA develops and publishes a list of companies that it considers to be High Hazard Workplaces. The companies are placed on the list based on their injury and illness rates, collected from more than 80,000 employers. Find out if you’re on the list and learn what to do about it.

• Guidance on the Prevention of Amputations
  Amputations are clearly one of the most severe types of injuries that can be experienced by an equipment operator. Due to the unacceptably high numbers of amputations in the printing industry, the industry has been classified as a high hazard industry, which has resulted in many inspections and severe penalties.  Click on the link above to learn more.

For more information about compliance, contact Rick Hartwig at rhartwig@printing.org or 800-910-4283, ext. 792.