RECURRENCE OF CITED OSHA STANDARDS U.S. Manufacturing Plants, 2015-2022 139,777 first citations followed at 28,339 U.S. manufacturing plants · 13 October 2026 RESEARCH REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS Section 01 OVERVIEW 3 Summary 5 Section 02 KEY FINDINGS 6 Fewer than 1 in 8 gets a second look 8 Nearly 1 in 18 is cited again 9 Machine guarding comes back most 10 Most return visits are partial 11 Similar across manufacturing 12 Section 03 NUANCES & SCOPE 13 Why the second inspection matters 14 What we measured 15 How this compares with earlier research 16 Section 04 IN PRACTICE 17 What this means on a shop floor 18 Three checks after every citation 19 Section 05 RIGOR & METHOD 20 How we checked this 21 Alternative definitions 22 Method 23 Limitations 24 Appendix DATA & SOURCES 25 Every ranked rule 25 About this research · Sources 28 OVERVIEW KEY FINDINGS NUANCES & SCOPE IN PRACTICE RIGOR & METHOD APPENDIX & SOURCES RECURRENCE OF CITED OSHA STANDARDS · SDS MANAGER 2026 2 Section 01 OVERVIEW OVERVIEW KEY FINDINGS NUANCES & SCOPE IN PRACTICE RIGOR & METHOD APPENDIX & SOURCES RECURRENCE OF CITED OSHA STANDARDS · SDS MANAGER 2026 3 SECTION 01 · OVERVIEW What happens after an OSHA citation closes? The case file says the hazard was fixed. Whether it stayed fixed is something almost nobody checks. We followed nearly 140,000 citations to see what OSHA found when it came back. 139,777 first citations followed at 28,339 U.S. manufacturing plants, cases closed 2015-2022 12.0% got a qualifying OSHA return visit within about three years: fewer than 1 in 8 5.4% of those were cited again for the identical rule: nearly 1 in 18 OVERVIEW KEY FINDINGS NUANCES & SCOPE IN PRACTICE RIGOR & METHOD APPENDIX & SOURCES RECURRENCE OF CITED OSHA STANDARDS · SDS MANAGER 2026 4 OVERVIEW SUMMARY When OSHA cites a plant, the case closes once the employer certifies the fix. We wanted to know what happens after that, so we followed 139,777 first citations at 28,339 manufacturing plants under federal OSHA. In most cases the public record goes quiet. Only 16,831 citations (12.0%) were followed by a qualifying OSHA visit within about three years. For the remaining 122,946, there is no way to tell from OSHA's records whether the hazard stayed fixed. When OSHA did come back, 916 of 16,831 citations (5.4%) were cited again for the identical paragraph (95% range 5.0% to 6.0%). Some rules return far more often than others. 1910.212(a)(1) machine guarding came back in 23.3% of cases, the highest of the 106 rules with enough data to rank. OSHA applied its own Repeat label far less often, to 361 of these pairs. And 90.4% of return visits were partial inspections, which may not have looked at the original hazard at all. For a safety manager, the upshot is that OSHA is unlikely to re-check a citation on your behalf. Machine guarding and lockout/tagout, the rules that come back most often, are sensible places to start checking yourself. These figures describe OSHA's records for the plants it chose to inspect. They do not measure how safe any individual plant is. 5.4% of followed citations cited again for the same rule 12.0% of citations got a qualifying return visit 23.3% for 1910.212(a)(1), the top rule 139,777 first citations followed, 2015-2022 OVERVIEW KEY FINDINGS NUANCES & SCOPE IN PRACTICE RIGOR & METHOD APPENDIX & SOURCES RECURRENCE OF CITED OSHA STANDARDS · SDS MANAGER 2026 5