Other-than-serious violations

An Other-than-Serious violation is used when the hazard does not present a substantial probability of death or serious physical injury. This level of citation is not likely to be used with regard to PSM because according to OSHA, Any violation of the PSM standard... is a condition which could result in death or serious physical harm to employees. Accordingly, violations of the PSM standard shall not normally be classified as other-than-serious (CPL 2-2.45A). 

An OSHA citation informs the employer of OSHA violations. Penalties are fines assessed as the result of citations. In March 1991, civil monetary penalties were increased sevenfold. The maximum allowable penalty is 70,000 for each willful or repeated violation, and 7,000 for each serious or other-than serious violation as well as 7,000 per day beyond a stated abatement date for failure to correct a violation. Examples of very large penalties paid out are ... 

Other-than-serious violations are violations that have a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm. A proposed penalty of up to 7,000 for each violation is discretionary. 

OSHA compliance officers can enter workplaces at reasonable times where work is taking place, inspect condition, facility machine, equipment, or materials, and question in private an employee or other person formally associated with the company. OSHA is empowered to issue citations and/or set penalties. Citations are issued for (a) other than serious violations, (b) willful violations, (c) repeat violations, and (d) failure to correct prior violations. 

After the compliance officer reports the findings, the area director determines which citations warrant formal issuance and which penalties require assessment. An other than serious violation addresses issues that would not normally cause death or serious physical harm. OSHA can issue a serious violation if substantial probability exist that death or serious physical harm could result. The employer knew or should have known situation or hazard. OSHA cites imminent dangerous citations as serious violations. A willful violation refers to a situation that the employer intentionally and knowingly committed. The employer either knows that the operation constitutes a violation or is aware that a hazardous condition existed but made no reasonable effort to eliminate it. A repeat violation can address any standard, regulation, rule, or order where, upon reinspection, another... 

The gravity of the violation is the primary consideration in determining penalty amounts. It is the basis for calculating the basic penalty for Serious and Other-Than-Serious violations. (Repeat and Willful violations can be based on the initial Serious or Other-Than-Serious gravity-based penalty but are multiplied by five to 10 times). 

For Other-Than-Serious violation, there is only a minimal severity impact — meaning, the most serious injury or illness that could reasonably be expected to result from an employee s exposrue would not be low, medium, or high severity and would not cause death or serious physical harm. 

OSHA Gravity Based Penalty system — Other-Than-Serious violations ... 

The notification the employer sends the Area Director is referred to as abatement certification. For Other-Than-Serious violations, this may be a signed letter identifying the inspection number and the citation item number and noting that you corrected the violation by the date specified on the citation. For more severe violations (such as Serious, Willful, Repeat, or Failure-to-Abate), abatement certification requires more detailed proof... 

OSHA inspectors found one alleged serious and one alleged other-than-serious violation of the OSH Act. 

The other-than-serious violation relates to the employer s failrme to... 

Minimal Severity Other-than-serious violations. Although such violations reflect conditions that have a direct and immediate relationship to the safety and health of employees, the injury or illness most likely to result would probably not cause death or serious physical harm. 

Citations for other than serious violations are issued when a situation would affect safety or health but there is a small probability of the hazard resulting in death or serious physical harm. There is often no penalty assessed, but the hazard must still be corrected. If there is a high probability of the hazard resulting in an injury or illness, then the maximum penalty is 1,000. The OSHA regional administrators have the authority to impose a penalty of up to 7,000 if the circumstances warrant. 

In describing these violations, the de minimis is the least serious and carries no penalty since it violates a standard that has no direct or immediate relationship to safety and health. An other-than-serious violation would probably not cause death or serious harm, but could have a direct effect on the safety or health of anployees. Serious violations are those where a substantial probability of death or serious physical harm could result Willful violations are violations where an employer has deliberately, voluntarily, or intentionally violated a standard. In addition, repeat violations are ones that occur within 3 years of an original citation. The values or penalties applied to citations are based on four criteria ... 

If the violation caused the death of a worker, OSHA can refer the matter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal prosecution. Criminal referral remains a strong enforcement tool that OSHA can use in serious cases. Each criminal violation allegation to include willfulness must go to a jury and meet the beyond a reasonable doubt threshold. An other than serious violation has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm. 

Several types of categories of violations are available to describe the degree seriousness of the charge. Three of the more commonly seen classes of violations are willful, serious and other-than-serious. A willful violation is defined as one committed by an employer with either an intentional disregard of, or plain indifference to the requirements of the regulation. To support a willful violation, OSHA must generally demonstrate that the employee knew the facts about the cited condition and knew the regulation required the situation to be corrected. OSHA s penalty policy requires that the initial penalties for violations shall be between 25,000 and 70,000 based upon a number of factors. 

For other-than-serious safety and health violations, there is only minimal severity. ... 

The gravity-based penalty system establishes the initial penalty based upon the potential severity of loss the hazard poses and the probability that an injury or illness could occur because of the alleged violation. The severity assessment classifies the alleged violations as serious or other-than-serious. The severity assessment is assigned to a hazard to be cited according to the most serious injury or illness which could reasonably be expected to result from an employee s exposure as follows (United States Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration 2001) ... 

An other-than-serious citation will normally be issued if an employer fails to post the OSHA 300A Summary by February or fails to certify the Summary or keep it posted for three months (until May). The unadjusted penalty for this violation is 1,000. A citation won t be issued if the Summary would have reflected no injuries or illnesses anyway. 

Following its inspection, OSHA issued one serious citation for four violations and one other than serious citation listing three violations of its construction standards. Had the required fall protection been worn by the employee, his death could have been prevented. 

Agree or not, marijuana is currently federally designated Schedule I. So if children choose to consider it no more than a harmless, recreational drug, they need to know that because of its current classification, involvement with marijuana is often treated as an extremely serious violation of the law. Prosecution of the federal violation sometimes takes precedence over state statutes that apply. In the past several decades, millions of people have been arrested for possession, use, and sale of marijuanamore than half a million in 1966 alone. Apparently, when a substance that people want is outlawed, some will risk becoming outlaws to get it, whereas others will not. 

Those responsible for the project engineering of such a plant, who often have access to less than 50 % of the information on the chemistry to be performed later due to the reasons mentioned, can come up with only one recommendation if they seriously wish to meet the demand for a design for the worst possible case leave the lid off the reactor. The lack of practicability of this proposal, not least due to the violation of other process safety engineering principles, does not need to be elaborated any further. 

These huge sums of public money must be diverted from other causes, causes like education and fighting violent crime. Further, each of the more than half a million arrests made each year in the United States for violating marijuana laws, even the most trivial arrest, removes at least one or two police officers from crime fighting for several hours while they complete the paperwork and process the defendant. This adds up to millions of man-hours per year that could be used for fighting more serious crime. 

Since 1986, FDA has performed nearly 2100 audits of more than 1400 public (e.g. affiliated with a university, hospital or other institution) and private institutional review boards. Fewer than 20 of these were for cause . Complete compliance was observed for only about 13%i of these inspections and IVo uncovered violations that were serious enough to warrant regulatory or administrative sanctions, which included suspension of clinical studies. The most frequently encountered deficiencies have been inadequate meeting minutes, lack of a quorum at meetings inadequate written procedures, and inadequate continuing review. 

Violations involving PCB disposal are treated as more serious, and the penalties are based on the cost of cleanup and proper disposal of the PCBs. The extent of violations are minor if they involve disposal of less than 25 kilograms or 5 gallons of PCBs or less than 625 square feet of a non-porous surface, 60 square feet of soil, 20 square feet of a porous surface, or 60 cubic feet of other materials. The extent is significant if the quantities exceed the minor category but are less than 125 kilograms or 25 gallons of PCBs or less than 3125 square feet of a non-porous surface, 300 square feet of soil,... 

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