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.