What Should You Know About OSHA Requirements For Your New Pallet Racking System?

If you're a business owner in need of a new pallet racking system for your warehouse or storage facility, you may be balancing considerations between cost and quality. Regardless of the system you ultimately choose, you'll need to ensure you install it in a way that comports with all federal and state occupational health and safety standards, including those of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Failure to abide by OSHA regulations can not only cost you productivity loss and worker lawsuits, it can also result in hefty civil fines and penalties that can shatter your business. If your failure to secure a pallet rack pursuant to applicable OSHA regulations leads to an employee's injury or death, your OSHA violation (however inadvertent) may be the linchpin that seals your legal liability. Read on to learn more about the OSHA and state-related safety requirements for your new pallet racking system.

Although OSHA does not yet have a specific regulation relating to the proper way to anchor pallet racking, the General Duty Clause (codified at paragraph 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act of 1970) can cite employers for failing to properly secure pallet racks and any other types of industrial steel shelving. This can include pipe racks, part shelves, bin storage racks and a variety of other racks common in warehouses and storage facilities.
  
Pursuant to the General Duty Clause, you're required to take all reasonable and necessary means to secure your pallet rack shelving to prevent it from collapsing or forcing a domino effect on the remaining shelves if one is inadvertently bumped by a forklift.

The exact way in which you do this can depend on several factors, like the size and height to width ratio of the racks, the weight of their contents, the general use of forklifts in the area (or their use in loading and unloading the shelves), and the susceptibility of your warehouse and the surrounding area to tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters that can cause the ground to shift.

Each pallet rack system you purchase from a reputable supplier should come with an owner's manual that will provide recommendations on the most secure ways to reinforce your pallet rack shelving to avoid collapse or damage. One common way to reinforce this shelving is to insert anchor bolts to connect the shelves' base plates to (and through) the floor, ensuring that these racks are well-connected to the floor even when weighed down.

It's also a good idea to anchor pallet racking to at least one wall when available. Placing anchor screws in both the floor and the adjoining wall can ensure this rack remains solid, even if a mild earthquake or rogue forklift strikes. Taking these efforts can minimize or even eliminate your potential liability when disaster strikes, ensuring your business can continue to function no matter what obstacles life may throw.

In addition to adhering to the federal General Duty Clause, you'll also want to keep any relevant state safety and health standards in mind. State standards can't allow citizens to waive or violate federal health and safety requirements, but are permitted to extend these requirements to make them even stricter.

In states like California, where the proximity to the San Andreas Fault can make earthquakes seem routine, you may be required to take extra efforts to anchor your pallet racks into the floor, walls and even ceilings to minimize the risk of injury to workers.

In Texas, tornadoes and even hurricanes can cause damage to freestanding buildings like warehouses and storage facilities, making proper anchoring even more important. You'll want to investigate your own state and local laws when installing a new pallet racking system to ensure you're abiding by all applicable requirements.