Quantitative Analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration Laws and Violation Citation Data for General Industry

In 1970, within the United States, an estimated 14,000 workers were killed on the job. This equates to about 38 worker deaths in the United States every day. On December 29, 1970, President Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) into law, establishing the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Coupled with the efforts of employers, workers, safety and health professionals, unions and advocates, OSHA and its state partners have dramat-ically improved workplace safety. In 2022, the most recent full-year data available from OSHA, reported 5,486 worker deaths in the United States, a reduction of work-related fatalities by almost 63%. If you consider the worker population has more than doubled since OSHA began, its impact of the reduction in workplace injuries and deaths is clear. However, workplace injuries and deaths are still a major concern. This study explores the relationship between the number of non-compliance (i.e., violation) citations issued by OSHA for Title 29 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regu-lations (CFR) 1910 that apply to General Industry and quantitative measurements of the text contained in that law. The measurements utilized in this study are Shannon entropy, the Hartley function, and the number of characters within each section of the law. Key findings indicate the Shannon entropy and the Hartley function predict the number of citations made by OSHA. Regression results indicate that number of characters is a stronger predictor of the number of citations made by OSHA. This suggests that the length of the regulatory text is more influential in predicting the frequency of citations than the Shannon entropy and Hartley function.