Safety Tidbit #2.29 – They all must add up

Safety Tidbit #2.29 – They all must add up

Sources:          OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping Requirements

Well, it’s that time of year again when we all must post our Summary of Injury and Illnesses from the previous year or the OSHA 300A form [1904.32(a)(5)].  If you have been maintaining your log all year long, the summary is a piece of cake. Further, if you use the cool Excel or PDF versions, that OSHA has available, the Summary is created for you. However, you must verify your 300-log’s validity [1904.32(a)(2)], and after you create the Summary you must certify it [1904.32(a)(4)].

Recently I have noticed a few misunderstandings as to how to complete the OSHA 300A form.  Namely entries in Blocks G, H, I, and J for Number of Cases and, also the entries in the Injury and Illness Types in the six blocks for M. First, easy enough, the totals of Blocks G thru J must equal the totals in the M blocks.

Second, each injury only gets counted once.  Blocks G thru J are a continuum from most severe (Block G) to least severe (Block J). I use an analogy to illustrate how this might work. Consider a worker getting bit by a spider on their hand. At first, it’s just an annoyance the worker goes home and nothing but maybe cleaning out the wound and a Band-Aid. First aid only it’s not recordable and life goes on.  About Day Three, the bite site is getting red and puffy, so the employee heads to the doctor to get it checked out. Behold, the wound is infected, and the doctor prescribes some antibiotics.  It’s recordable now, right? Agreed, however, no loss time or change in work duties (Block J). Unfortunately, the employee isn’t too reliable about taking their medicine subsequently the bite site gets worse, and the wound keeps them from doing their regular duties (Block I).

Time moves on, and the worker’s hand gets worse and red lines start up their arms. They head back to the hospital and get admitted since now they have a serious infection and possibly gangrene. Now the worker is a lost time case (Block H). Also, don’t forget, a call to OSHA will be required since the hospital admitted the employee. Unfortunately, the worker’s constitution is not very good, and they end up dying in the hospital. Now, the case is a fatality (Block G), and if OSHA hasn’t come to your company, which they probably won’t, you need to call them again to let them know the worker died. Ultimately, the injury only gets listed once on the OSHA 300A and is listed in Block G as a death.

There are many such analogies and I’m sure you have a favorite one of your own. However, I hope this analogy illustrates how one injury ultimately is recorded as one fatality on the OSHA 300A form. Even though all the days transferred to other duties (Block L) or lost (Block K) are also captured.

Hope this was helpful and thanks for reading my Safety Tidbits ~ Bryan