OSHA has updated its National Emphasis Program (NEP) on preventing trenching and excavation collapses. This is in response to a recent spike in trenching fatalities. OSHA will increase its education and enforcement efforts and each OSHA office will develop outreach programs. Inspectors will now record trenching and excavation inspections in a national reporting system. The program began on October 1, 2018, with a three-month period of education and prevention outreach. Enforcement activities will begin after the outreach period and remain in effect until canceled. Click here for OSHA’s News Release.
The NEP is a series of temporary programs released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s OSHA in order to protect the health and safety of workers in industries that have been determined to present high risks. The programs included are Combustible Dust, Federal Agencies, Hazardous Machinery, Hexavalent Chromium, Lead, Primary Metal Industries, Process Safety Management, Shipbreaking, and Trenching and Excavation.
