In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Davre Blanchard of EHS Today reviews the NSC 2026 Safety Congress & Expo, including a countdown of OSHA's Top 10 Most Frequent Violations.

Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking EHS, part of the Great Question podcast series produced by Endeavor Business Media’s Manufacturing Group, a division of EndeavorB2B. Here’s where you’ll get news, information, and compelling conversations on the latest developments in workplace health and safety. I’m Dave Blanchard, editor-in-chief of EHS Today, which you can find at ehstoday.com. Welcome to the podcast.

I recently attended the annual National Safety Council’s Safety Congress and Expo in Indianapolis. The NSC 2026 show drew 11,000 attendees and roughly 1,000 exhibitors throughout the week, which would make it probably the biggest collection of safety professionals in the United States this year. For this episode of Talking EHS, we thought we’d review some of the highlights from the NSC 2026 show.

On this podcast and in our regular coverage at EHS Today, we frequently refer to “safety excellence” but what does that actually refer to? There are probably as many definitions for safety excellence as there are safety leaders, but Adam Walters, EHS manager with chemical producer BASF, offered his own definition at the NSC show. He sees safety excellence through the lens of culture, not compliance. He describes it as: “Recognizing and controlling exposure for self and others.”

The behavior of safety leaders, Walters said, shapes norms and expectations among workers. What leaders tolerate ends up becoming the culture of the company. He explained that he would often get a pat on the back whenever he kept production going, which ultimately came at the expense of establishing a safety culture. “Nobody wants to go to work wondering if today is the day they get hurt,” Walter said, but when a company is focused more on production than on worker safety, the corporate culture has definitely shifted away from a safety culture.

Safety leaders, Walters said, should be role models for rule adherence. And that requires consistency – leaders need to follow the rules themselves, and they need to be consistent when giving discipline and enforcing the rules. At too many places, he noted, it’s not normal for people to work safely. Safety culture is built in moments, not meetings.

He offered three leadership habits that drive excellence:

1. Normalize speaking up, so people feel empowered to question unsafe conditions.

2. Simplify life-critical rules – the kind that put people at risk of their lives – and reinforce those few but vital rules.

3. Make safety practical and visible.

Another fascinating presentation at NSC 2026 came from Jeffrey Kozub, global director for occupational medicine and regional EHS director at Qnity Electronics, a semiconductor manufacturer. He stressed the importance of Gemba walks for safety leaders. Gemba, a term that comes from lean management principles developed by the Japanese, refers simply to the concept of management by walking around, going to the places where the work is happening and where accidents or incidents could most likely occur.

“Go where work happens, ask to understand, and treat employees as the experts in their work,” Kozub advised. The purpose of the Gemba walks is to learn how work is really done – by observation, by asking questions, and by listening – really listening – to the employees. The outcome, if you use the right approach and do it regularly – is shared understanding and improvement ideas. But he also notes: a Gemba does NOT replace compliance inspections.

Kozub offered some examples of questions to ask during a Gemba, such as:

• What are you about to do?

• What is different today?

• What could hurt you most?

• Which control do you rely on most?

• What would make this safer or easier?

He emphasized that the safety leader should observe the process and the system, and not just the employee.

It’s important that you close the loop on every concern that is raised, but never promise a fix you cannot deliver. Instead, commit to the next appropriate action and then report back. “Be accessible,” Kozub urged, and “be available.”

One of the highlights from the NSC show is the “big reveal” from OSHA of the Top 10 most frequent violations from the past year. Why is this a big deal? Let me quote from Lorraine Martin, CEO of the NSC. “Year after year, the OSHA Top 10 reminds us how pervasive preventable workplace hazards remain. Every citation represents an opportunity to identify gaps and strengthen safety practices before a worker is injured. Employers should use these findings to evaluate their workplaces, install critical safeguards, and implement proven solutions that help protect workers and save lives.” 

Prent Cline, deputy assistant secretary of OSHA, was on hand at the NSC show to present the Top 10. The preliminary results are based on federal OSHA data collected from October 1, 2025, through August 31, 2026. (Note: Data collected from state OSHA agencies are not included in the rankings.)

So let’s go through the list the way David Letterman used to do on his TV show, backwards from # 10 and on up to the # 1 most frequent citation among US workplaces.

Holding at number 10 for the second year in a row is Machine Guarding, a general industry violation, most prevalent at machine shops and fabricated metal shops.

At number 9, again for the second year in a row, is PPE: Eye and Face Protection, a construction industry violation with the worst offenders being framing, roofing, siding, and masonry.

Dropping from number 6 a year ago to number 8 this year is Fall Protection-Training Requirements, another construction industry standard.

Moving from Number 8 a year ago to Number 7 this year is Forklifts and Powered Industrial Trucks, with violations typically occurring in warehouses, framing construction, and machine shops. Regular listeners to The Great Question podcast might remember a podcast we did a few months ago, in June 2026, for the Supply Chain Insider series that focused on Forklift Safety. That one was called: “Don’t Depend on Technology to Keep Your Warehouse Safe.”

Let’s look now at Number 6, which dropped from the Number 5 position a year ago. And that is Respiratory Protection, prevalent at masonry, autobody shops and machine shops.

Halfway up the list at Number 5 is Ladders, another construction industry standard, with the most frequent violations coming from roofing, framing, siding, commercial and residential construction. Ladders dropped a couple spots this year, no pun intended, from Number 3 a year ago.

Moving up the list from Number 7 a year ago to Number 4 is Scaffolding, yes, another construction industry standard, with the main violators being framing, construction and roofing.

Number 3 is Lockout/Tagout, moving up from Number 4 last year. This is a general industry standard.

Number 2, same as last year, is Hazard Communication, with roofers being the biggest violator.

And that brings us to the Number One violation, which to no one’s surprise, is Fall Protection—General Requirements. In fact, that’s been the number one violation for the past 16 years.

According to Jay Vietas, NSC’s senior director of research, falls are the second leading cause of workplace fatalities, accounting for 844 workers, more than two per day. Four of OSHA’s Top 10 violations are directly tied to falls: Fall Protection—General Requirements; Scaffolding; Ladders; and Fall Protection—Training. (The number one cause of workplace fatalities is transportation incidents, which is not covered by OSHA.)

“We need to do a better job of educating people about the why of workplace safety,” David Keeling said, in a keynote address at the event. “It’s not just about regulatory compliance—it’s about convincing people to do the right thing.”

“Safety should not be treated as proprietary,” Director Keeling said, a theme he stressed in a one-on-one interview I had with him earlier in the summer, which you can find on EHSToday.com. He emphasized how, when he was head of safety at UPS, he often would compare notes with his counterpart at FedEx, which of course is UPS’s main rival. But safety best practices are something that he believes should be shared amongst partners and competitors alike.

When asked what success would look like to him after his term came to an end, Keeling said, “When OSHA arrives at a company, instead of the employees saying, UH OH!, they’d instead say, “Where have you been? We’ve been waiting for you to visit.” He also emphasized that OSHA wants to be in the abatement business, not just in the enforcement business.

As I noted earlier, there were roughly 1,000 exhibitors at the NSC show, many of them displaying their latest safety products, and so naturally there was New Product Showcase competition for “Best in Show” at the event. As we just learned from OSHA’s Top 10 list, four of the top 10 violations are directly related to falls, so not surprisingly, the first place winner in the New Product Showcase was the Hero Self-Retracting Lifeline from Guardian Fall Protection. This SRL provides maximum freedom of movement with enhanced line-lock performance, and it meets both ANSI and CSA requirements. 

The second place winner was Honeywell’s ModRAE, an advanced gas detector that supports PID (photoionization detector), multi-gas and future sensing options.  Its cartridge-based architecture allows detection capabilities to be configured and adjusted in the field 

And in third place was another Self-Retracting Lifeline, 3M’s DBI-SALA Nano-Lok Edge Anchor Mounted Self-Retracting Lifeline. 3M’s SRL features a pin-locking carabiner for semi-permanent anchoring, a galvanized steel cable lifeline, a nylon thermoplastic housing and an abrasion-resistant shock pack wear pad for durability.

So congratulations to the Best in Class winners, and as the latest technologies continue to advance the cause of workplace safety, you’ll want to stay informed of all the newest developments by following EHS Today. 

That was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what all was happening at the NSC 2026 show this year. Next year, the show is scheduled for the last week in September in Anaheim, California, so mark that one on your calendar.

And there you have it, as we wrap it up for this episode of Talking EHS. If you liked this podcast, we encourage you to subscribe to The Great Question wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want to follow our regular coverage of all things OSHA and workplace safety, you can subscribe to EHS Today at ehstoday.com. Till next time, I’m Dave Blanchard. Stay safe and stay healthy.

About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.

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