OSHA Update: New Reporting and Recording Requirements for Injuries and Illnesses
 
December 21, 2001
 

On January 1, 2002, changes to OSHA’s illness and injury reporting and recording standard (29 CFR § 1904) take effect. The standard affects most general industry employees except for those in certain low hazard industries such as retail, service or insurance.

In general, the standard requires employers with more than 10 employees to keep records of occupational injuries (recording) and to inform OSHA within eight hours of a death or hospitalization of three or more employees (reporting). This article discusses some of the major changes. To ensure full compliance, employers are referred to OSHA’s Web site.

The most important changes include:

• There is no longer a distinction between illness and injury.
• There are definitions added for first aid and work-relatedness.
• There are recording requirements for specific types of injuries.
• There are new forms.

Recording Criteria (§1904.4 et seq.). The employer must report each fatality, injury and illness that is work-related, that is a new case, and that meets either the general reporting criteria or specific recording criteria.

Work-Relatedness (§1904.5). The employer does not have to record a non-work-related injury if: the employee was a member of the general public when it occurred; the symptoms arise from a non-work-related event; it occurs as part of a wellness, medical, fitness or recreational activity; it occurs from eating, drinking or preparing food for personal consumption; it occurs due to personal tasks outside of assigned work hours; it is related to personal grooming, self-medication or is intentionally self-inflicted; it stems from a car accident on a company parking lot while commuting; it is the common cold or flu; or, it is a mental illness.

An injury at home directly related to work performance, such as dropping a box of work documents on the foot, would be work-related. Tripping over the dog while rushing to answer a work-related phone call would not.

General Recording Requirements (§1904.7). If there is a death, or the hospitalization of three employees, within 30 days of an accident, the employer must still report that fact to OSHA within eight hours of learning of the event.

An employer also must record the injury if the employee had days away from work, restricted work, medical treatment other than first aid, loss of consciousness, or was diagnosed with significant injury or illness. This last requirement has been added to capture work-related cases involving such things as cancer, chronic irreversible diseases, fractured or cracked bones, and punctured eardrums, which would not otherwise be recordable because they may not require any medical treatment, would not result in a day away from work or restricted work or result in loss of consciousness.

This section also defines "medical treatment" by giving a lengthy definition of what constitutes first aid and stating everything not "first aid" is medical treatment. Employers should refer to these 14 definitions of first aid in evaluating whether medical treatment had been given.

Specific Recording Requirements (§1904.8-1904.12). The final rule initially included five categories of specific injuries and illnesses, which must be recorded. They included contaminated needle sticks and sharps, medical removal of an employee pursuant to other OSHA regulations such as the lead standard, a 10 dB shift in hearing loss, work-related tuberculosis and musculoskeletal disorders. OSHA is currently considering rescinding the requirement for recording of hearing losses and, since the ergonomic standard was overturned by Congress, has rescinded the requirement to record musculoskeletel disorders.

Forms (§1904.29). OSHA has changed the forms that the employer must use. The OSHA 300 is the log of work-related injuries, the OSHA 300(A) is the summary that must be posted in January of the following year, and the OSHA 301 is the injury and illness incident report that must be completed within seven days of the employer’s knowledge of the injury or illness. Employers may continue to use equivalent forms if they contain the same information. OSHA also now allows computer forms.

There are other changes addressing where an employer with multi-establishments can keep the forms, the retention of the forms, the provision of forms to employees, and the provision of records to the government. The reader is referred to the full standard for consideration of these other detailed requirements.

For more information, contact Michael Murphy via e-mail or at 1-888-688-8500.