Occupational injuries and illnesses

The recording and reporting of occupational injuries and illness requirements can be found in 29 CFR 1904—recording and reporting occupational injuries and illnesses. This regulation has been revised and came into effect as of January 2002. These requirements are summarized in the following paragraphs. 

The following are lists of industries that are required to maintain occupational injury and illness 

All employers with no more than 10 full- or part-time employees at any one time in the previous calendar year are not required to keep OSHA records. Employers in the retail trades of finance, insurance, real estate, and services industries are not required to keep OSHA records. Some employers are normally not required or are exempt from keeping OSHA records (Table 16.8). 

Some employers and individuals who are not required to keep OSHA records are 

Some changes have occurred relevant to what is considered to be first aid versus medical treatment. The areas where changes have occurred are found in Table 16.9. 

Any occupational illness that has resulted in an abnormal condition or disorder caused by exposure to environmental factors may be acute or chronic. Inhalation, absorption, ingestion, direct contact with toxic substances or harmful agents, and any repetitive motion injury are classified as an illness. All illnesses are recordable, regardless of severity. Injuries are recordable when 

An on-the-job death occurs (regardless of the length of time between the injury and death). 

Employers with more than ten anployees are required to complete and maintain occupational injury and illness records. The OSHA 301 Injury and Illness Incident Report, or equivalent, must be completed within 7 days of the occurrence of an injury at the worksite and the OSHA 301 must be retained for 5 years. Also, the OSHA 300 Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses is to be completed within 7 days when a recordable injury or illness occurs, and retained for 5 years. The OSHA 300A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses must be posted yearly from February 1 to April 30. OSHA forms can now be maintained on the computer until they are needed. 

The worker receives medical treatment beyond first aid. 

Employers with more than ten employees are required to eomplete OSHA 101 and retain it for five years as well as complete the OSHA 200 log and post it yearly from February 1 to March 1. 

Medical examinations are required by some OSHA regulations for workers before they can perform certain types of work. This work includes, at present, the following  

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Occupational Injuries and Illnesses in the United States hy Industry, 1990, bulletin 2399 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, D.C., Apr. 1992. General Reference... 

The OSHA incidence rate is based on cases per 100 worker years. A worker year is assumed to contain 2000 hours (50 work weeks/year X 40 hours/week). The OSHA incidence rate is therefore based on 200,000 hours of worker exposure to a hazard. The OSHA incidence rate is calculated from the number of occupational injuries and illnesses and the total number of employee hours worked during the applicable period. The following equation is used ... 

CFR 1904, Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. Effective January 1, 2002 The US OSHA website for recordkeeping revisions is http //www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/index.html... 

The 1993 Annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 110 cases of dermatitis attributed to calcium hydroxide (and other calcium oxides) exposure the skin disorders resulted in a median of 9 days away from work, with 27% having more than 20 days away from work. ... 

Overall, chemical bums comprised 0.6% of total occupational injuries and illnesses resulting in lost work time and chemicals and chemical products accounted for 1.6 % of such injuries or illnesses [17]. The incidence of chemical bums (not specified as to eye and/or skin) was 0.8 per 10,000 full-time workers. The incidence rate for the Chemicals and Chemical Products industry segment was 2.1 per 10,000 fulltime workers. 

Nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses requiring days away from work, 2006. United States Bureau of Labor, News, Whashington, DC, November 8, 2007. Accessed online in 2008 http //www.bls.gov/iff/home.htm. 

The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOU) collects information from a random sample of about 250,000 establishments representing most of private industry. Worker characteristics are collected only for those workers sustaining injuries and illnesses that require days away from work to recuperate. 

Chance of Occupational Injury or Illness = Employment + Total Nonfatal Cases. Employment based on 1994 CPS. Source U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, 1994. 

What is the most dangerous occupation in the United States Is it truck driver, fisher, or elephant trainer The public frequently asks this question, as do the news media and safety and health professionals. To answer it, BLS used data from its Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) and Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII). ... 

OECD Oil OSHA Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Occupational Injury and Illness U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration... 

Where possible, metrics should be easy to use. Metrics that are hard to measure or derive may be less likely to be measured or less likely to be measured correctly. A wrong value is worse than a bad metric However, not everything that needs to be measured or monitored will necessarily be easy to use, which can be an intrinsic conflict between accuracy and understandability of metrics. For example, the occupational injury and illness rate has been so effective because it is simple and easy to understand, even for nonprofessionals. However, it does not take into account complexities such as the big variation of hazards and activities of different workplaces. 

Metrics should relate to the elements of the process safety system. Poorly selected metrics that do not specifically relate to the execution of process safety elements will not provide an accurate evaluation of process safety system performance. Occupational injury and illness reporting rates are sometimes used to judge overall safety performance, and this metric does track the incidence of employee injuries quite well. However, this rate does not reflect the effectiveness of the process safety system. Occupational safety is quite important to the health and well-being of employees, but the metrics involved in assessing the occupational safety performance are not appropriate for process safety system evaluation the detailed elements of a process safety program differ markedly fl-om an occupational safety program (as discussed in Chapter 3). 

Since its inception in 1971, OSHA has helped to cut workplace fatalities by more than 60% and occupational injury and illness rates by 40%. At the same time, US employment has doubled from 56 million workers at 3.5 million worksites to more than 115 million workers at 7.1 million sites. 

Occupational injury and illness recording and reporting requirements. Final Rule. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Fed Reg 2001 66 5916-6135. 

Objectives Ashland does state a corporate goal of eliminating occupational injuries and illnesses among employees. This goal is not time-related. 

Lost time accidents Ashland has a corporate goal to eliminate occupational injuries and illness. For APAC the target date is 2003. In 1999 Ashland s group OSHA recordable frequency rate was 4.87. The rates in the divisions were ... 

Organ-specific occupational toxidromes. A list of Ten Leading Causes of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses has been published by the National Institute tor Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). This list, organized generally by organ system, is included in Table IV-2, along with additional disorders not on the original NIOSH list. 

As reviewed by Karwowski and Marras (1997), work-related musculoskeletal disorders currently account for one-third of aU occupational injuries and illnesses reported to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by employers every year. These disorders thus constitute the largest job-related injury and illness problem in the United States today. According to OSHA (1999), in 1997 employers reported a total of 626,000 lost workday disorders to the BLS, and these disorders accounted for 1 of every 3 spent for workers compensation in that year. Employers pay more than 15-20 billion in workers compensation costs for these disorders every year, and other expenses associated with MSDs may increase this total to 45-54 billion a year. 

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (1995), Occupational Injuries and Illness in the United States by Industry, Department of Labor, Washington, DC. 

The OSHA Act injury and illness system specifies a procedure for calculating the frequency of occurrence of occupational injuries and illnesses and an index of their severity. These can be used by companies to monitor their health and safety performance. National data by major industrial categories are compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics annually and can serve as a basis of comparison of individual company performance within an industry. Thus, a company can determine whether its injury rate is better or worse than that of other companies in its industry. This industrywide injury information is available on the OSHA website (http //www.osha.gov). 

Dembe, A., Erikson, J., Delbos, R., Banks, S. (2005). The impact of overtime and long work hours on occupational injuries and illnesses New evidence from the United States. Environmental Medicine, 62, 588-597. 

The Targeted Hazard Identification System (THIS) is specifically designed to enhance employees ability to recognize and target safety and health hazards in the workplace, which in turn enhances the company s proactive approach to the prevention of costly occupational injuries and illnesses. The THIS also provides an easy and cost-effective way for employees to communicate their observations of safety and health hazards in the workplace to other employees and management. 

The THIS program is specifically designed to permit the Philips Lighting Company (Danville facility see Figure A3.1) to focus all employees attention on the top three safety and health hazards that are the root cause of the vast majority of their occupational injuries and illnesses. The three identified or targeted hazards for the initial training are... 

Leigh, J. P. et al. (1997). Occupational injury and illness in the United States Estimates of costs, morbidity, and mortality. 157(14), 1557-1568. 

Part 1904 Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illness... 

Table 4 in the BLS report is titled Number of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Involving Days Away from Work by Selected Injury or Illness Characteristics and Industry Division, 2000. Lor private industry as a whole, strains and sprains, carpal tunnel syndrome, and tendonitis were 46.3% of total cases. Similar figures are commonly expressed. Lor example. Dr. Lranklin Mirer, Director of the UAW Health and Safety Department, says that for about 700,000 auto workers, over 50% of all incidents reported are musculoskeletal. And the costs for musculoskeletal injuries tend to ran high, especially for serious back injuries. 

The United States Department of Labor—Bureaus of Labor Statistics April 10, 2002 report USDL 02-196 is designated as Lost-Worktime Injuries Characteristics and Resulting Time Away from Work, 2000. Table 4 is titled Number of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses involving days away from work by selected injury and illness characteristics and industry division, 2000. One of the categories in the listing of Event(s) or exposure(s) leading to injury or illness is Exposure to harmful substances. Of the 1,477,800 injuries and illnesses covered in Table 4, 69,100 are in the Exposure to harmful substances category. That s 4.7% of the total. 

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