OSHA Citation Data for Safety Data Sheet Violations
This resource is a collection of OSHA citations involving violations of the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) provisions of multiple OSHA regulations for the years 1985 through 2026 using U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) enforcement data.
All years: 1985–2026 (2026 is partial)
160,973SDS citation items issued
3,848,182Recorded conducted inspections
4.04%Inspections with SDS citations
Last update: October 16, 2026. Over time, OSHA coverage and reporting practices have varied. The following data are not a complete census or a population compliance rate. Recent inspection cohorts are provisional: open cases can acquire citations later; 2026 is also a partial year.
The term SDS citation item means an alleged SDS-related violation for which OSHA issued a citation - a formal notice identifying the alleged violation, the requirement violated, and a reasonable time for correction. The associated penalty notification may propose a dollar amount or state that no penalty is proposed. Each item is identified by its citation/item ID within an inspection report.
One inspection can include several items, and one item can cover multiple instances. De minimis conditions documented without a citation are outside the scope of this dataset.
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SDS citation totals and classifications by year
Stacked columns show both the total number of eligible SDS citation items and their current classifications, grouped by citation issuance year. Choose percentages to compare the classification mix, or Table for exact counts and annual totals. These figures combine all included SDS requirements and all industries. The year filters above apply; the inspection-industry filter below does not.
“Other” is OSHA’s Other-than-serious category. “Repeat” and “Willful” are separate enforcement classifications, not successive points on a seriousness scale. Current classifications may reflect amendments or settlements and can differ from the original classifications.
| Year | Serious | Other | Repeat | Willful | Unclassified | Total |
|---|
Inspection volume and percentage with an SDS citation
For each inspection start year: distinct conducted inspections with at least one eligible SDS citation ÷ all recorded conducted inspections × 100. Multiple SDS items in the same inspection count once. Citations are assigned back to the inspection’s start year, even if issued later.
Gray bars / left axis: number of conducted inspections. Orange line / right axis: percentage with at least one SDS citation. Both use inspection start year and the selected industry. Both axes start at zero; their independent scales adjust to the selected years and industry, so apparent alignment is not evidence of a causal relationship.
This controls for the number of inspections in the downloaded file. It does not control for inspection targeting, inspection type, jurisdiction, changes in reporting, or the time available to issue citations. The denominator includes inspections with and without any citations. Inspections recorded as not conducted, or without a recognized conducted scope, are excluded.
Historical citation codes: this page combines the same SDS requirements whether recorded under §1910.1200(g), construction §1926.59(g), or shipyard §1915.1200(g). Separate construction/shipyard codes occur before 2015; later SDS citations in those industries can be recorded under §1910.1200(g). This is an observed pattern, not evidence of a formal nationwide coding change in 2015. Original codes are available in the downloads.
Annual table
Which penalties are shown? Dollar amounts are the initial or current penalties recorded on the selected SDS citation items, not the total fine for the inspection. Annual dollar sums add the supplied current amounts for those SDS items only. An inspection may also have penalties for unrelated violations. Grouped citation items may share a penalty without a separate allocation to each item, so these records do not always isolate the amount attributable solely to an SDS requirement. Missing amounts are not zero; current amounts are not necessarily final or paid.
The citation-item column uses issuance year, all industries; the combined inspection column uses inspection start year and the selected industry. The two columns describe different cohorts and should not be divided into one another.
| Year | SDS citation items | Inspections with SDS citations | SDS citations with penalty 1 | Total SDS penalties |
|---|
1 “With penalty” means a supplied current SDS citation-item amount greater than $0; the percentage uses all eligible SDS citation items issued that year. Recorded zeroes are excluded. Missing amounts are also excluded from the positive count, but remain in the percentage denominator: they may represent a zero, a grouped penalty, or an unreported amount, so earlier percentages may understate the true share with a penalty. The eligible records have no missing current amounts from 2016 onward; 2015 still has 110 missing amounts. “Total SDS penalties” sums supplied current amounts on SDS citation items, not inspection-total fines or amounts paid; grouped items may lack a separate SDS-only allocation.
Inspection figures show inspections with an SDS citation / all conducted inspections (percentage), grouped by inspection start year. Citation and penalty figures use citation issuance year. See footnote 1 for the positive-penalty definition and historical missing amounts.
Download the annual summaries and inspection-rate data.
Definitions, exclusions and penalty coverage
The combined citation totals use 160,973 eligible items. Source deletion indicators and unusual primary codes are excluded from these summaries and retained in the full downloads. The rate numerator includes inspections with at least one such eligible item, including the narrow SDS-specific cross-references.
The denominator is the same official DOL inspection snapshot, using inspection scope A (complete), B (partial), or C (records). Open and closed cases are included. Rates for recent years may rise as citations are issued or posted. Older cohorts may also change with amendments. These are observed inspection citation percentages, not the percentage of employers violating SDS requirements.
Industry groups use NAICS 336611 or SIC 3731 for shipbuilding/repair, and NAICS prefix 23 or SIC prefixes 15–17 for construction; remaining inspections are other/unknown. Industry codes are a broad screening classification and do not establish the legal jurisdiction of every inspected task.
Known penalty sums omit blank amounts; blanks are never treated as zero. Amounts are nominal dollars and do not establish total assessed or paid penalties. The table shows the number of supplied amounts relative to citation items.
Browse citation items by year
Select an issuance year, then narrow the results. “Not supplied” means the downloaded source field was blank; it does not mean $0. “Current” is the snapshot value and may not be final. Dollar amounts belong to the listed SDS citation item, not the inspection’s total fine; grouped items may not have a separate allocation.
Inspection and citation links open OSHA records in a new tab. Modern DOL activity IDs are converted to OSHA’s public inspection-number format; older IDs are retained. The Home Pride inspection and citation were successfully tested, but not every generated link has been checked individually. If OSHA cannot serve a record, use the OSHA employer search. The original DOL activity IDs remain in the downloadable datasets.
Select an issuance year to browse citation items.
| Employer / inspection | Citation / standard | Issued | Classification Original → current | Initial SDS item penalty | Current SDS item penalty | Record notes |
|---|
Coverage and interpretation
All 13,280,422 violation rows in the downloaded DOL snapshot were screened. Matching events were selected from 11,679,711 event rows, and inspection details from 5,202,096 inspection rows. The extract preserves 166,714 distinct citation items, 133,915 event rows and 160,097 matching inspection rows. One citation has no inspection-table match.
The core scope is §1910.1200(g), including compact and historical code spellings. Explicit (g) citations under 1926.59 and 1915.1200 are separate incorporated-standard records. Narrow cross-references are 1910.1200(b)(3)(ii), (b)(4)(ii), (e)(2)(i), and 1910.1450(h)(1)(ii). Broader labeling, training, written-program and recordkeeping citations are not automatically treated as SDS cases.
- Original classifications: 69,517 are supported by issued-event records; 97,197 are unknown. Of the known originals, 3,806 differ from the current classification. These figures include deletion-indicated items.
- Missing penalties: 113,630 initial and 116,358 current penalty fields are blank. Blanks are not zeroes. Grouped items may have no individually allocated amount; sums of known amounts do not establish total assessed or paid penalties.
- Source flags: 5,690 items have deletion indicators; 51 have unusual primary codes. These exclusion groups can overlap. All remain in the downloads.
- Historical interpretation: A paragraph code alone does not prove whether the employer lacked an SDS or supplied defective content. Historical regulatory text and the actual citation allegations require review.
- Limits: State-specific equivalents, miscoded or text-only SDS allegations and records absent from the source files can be missed. Public release delays and later amendments affect coverage. The source files do not establish a complete census of SDS enforcement.
- Official links: Modern bulk IDs are converted to the observed public inspection-number format; legacy IDs are retained. Both the inspection and citation link format were successfully tested on Home Pride, including comparison of the citation details. Other links are derived rather than individually verified; historical exceptions and OSHA website availability remain limitations. Original DOL identifiers are preserved in the downloads.
Original classification is derived only from an unambiguous ordinary-penalty issued event. DOL’s current and legacy event descriptions differ on one field’s applicability; raw events and both metadata sources are retained for audit. Current classifications and penalties are not necessarily final outcomes. No de minimis conclusion is inferred from a zero or missing penalty.
Official bulk sources: DOL violations, violation events, and inspections. See the methodology for exact filters, joins, validation and additional limits.
Download the data
- Complete research package (ZIP) — all datasets, selected source rows, audits, source metadata and reproducible retrieval programs.
- Complete citation dataset: CSV · JSON with event history
- Yearly classification counts (CSV) · Inspection-year rates and industry groups (CSV)
- Summary CSVs: issuance year and cited standard · current classification · original classification · paragraph
- Methodology and coverage notes. Retrieval scripts, source hashes, validation reports and the standard-code screening inventory are included in the complete research ZIP.