This year, I helped Jess McCluer, senior vice president of safety and regulatory for the National Grain and Feed Association, deliver compliance seminars across several states. The seminars featured industry experts focusing on Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules and safety best practices. Afterward, I noticed there was still some confusion about OSHA Emphasis Programs and OSHA overall, so let’s take a closer look.

OSHA divides the United States into different regions to manage its operations. There are 10 regional offices located across the United States. Each regional office is headquartered in a major city and is responsible for workplaces in the surrounding states and territories.

State Plans are workplace safety and health programs approved by OSHA and managed by individual states or U.S. territories. Currently, 22 State Plans cover both private sector and state and local government workers. The State Plans must be at least as effective as federal OSHA in protecting workers and preventing work-related injuries, illnesses, and fatalities.

Local and Regional Programs

OSHA utilizes both Local Emphasis Programs (LEPs) and Regional Emphasis Programs (REPs) to focus resources and address specific hazards or industries that pose a particular risk to workers. They are both enforcement strategies that involve a combination of inspections and outreach efforts, including informational mailings, training materials, and presentations. However, the key difference lies in their scope and jurisdiction. Both types of programs play a significant role in OSHA’s proactive initiatives to enhance workplace safety and health, focusing on high-risk environments and supporting regulatory compliance

LEPs are designed and implemented at regional and/or area office levels. They can be limited to a single OSHA area office or encompass several within a region, focusing on localized hazards or industry-specific risks, such as grain handling facilities. LEPs are often initiated based on local knowledge of specific industry hazards or injury/illness data. There is currently a grain handling LEP covered within the jurisdictional boundaries of the Boise, ID area office.

REPs have a broader application across a region, while LEPs focus on addressing localized or industry-specific risks within a particular area or group of areas within a region. Presently, REPs relevant to grain handlers are in effect for the following OSHA regional offices:

  • Chicago (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin)
  • Kansas City (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska)
  • Denver (Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming)
  • Dallas (New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas)

National Programs

OSHA National Emphasis Programs (NEPs) are temporary programs that focus OSHA’s resources on specific hazards and high-hazard industries to reduce or eliminate worker exposures. These programs are implemented when OSHA identifies a serious and prevalent safety risk in a particular sector, prompting increased federal oversight and inspections.

NEPs are a way for OSHA to concentrate its enforcement efforts on areas where there are ignificant safety concerns. OSHA will conduct inspections at establishments within the targeted industries or those with specific hazards, focusing on identifying and addressing the hazards outlined in the NEP. Current NEPs of interest to the grain and feed industry include combustible dust, as well as outdoor and indoor heat-related hazards.

OSHA’s current REPs and LEPs for grain handling focus on reducing workplace hazards in grain handling facilities to decrease injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. This program combines compliance assistance and enforcement activities to increase employer awareness. The key aspects of LEP include targeted inspections of grain handling facilities focusing on falls, electrocutions, engulfment, auger entanglements, struck-by-hazards, and combustible dust explosions and fires.

The LEP encourages employers to develop and implement comprehensive safety programs, including those related to lockout/tagout, powered industrial vehicles, grain bin entry, housekeeping, fall protection, confined space entry, and entry into grain storage structures.

Grain handlers need to be prepared for targeted inspections. The best place to start is ensuring compliance with the OSHA 1910.272 standard for grain handling facilities. The standard outlines the requirements for entry into grain storage structures, entry into flat storage structures, housekeeping, preventive maintenance, hot work, emergency action plans, employee training, contractors, receiving pit grate openings, emergency escape, filter collectors, grain stream processing equipment, and inside bucket elevators.

Appendix B of the standard outlines the means to achieve the performance goals within the standard. OSHA Instruction CPL 02-01-004, titled “Inspection of Grain Handling Facilities,” provides guidelines for OSHA Compliance, Safety, and Health Officers inspecting grain handling facilities.

Compliance can be confusing. It is important for grain handlers to understand OSHA’s emphasis programs, their intent, and their repercussions as well the requirements of OSHA Grain Handling Standard. Place your best foot forward and be prepared. You never know when OSHA may show up.

Joe Mlynek is president and safety and loss control consultant for Progressive Safety Services LLC, Gates Mills, OH; 216-403-9669; and subject matter expert for Safety Made Simple, LLC, Olathe, KS.