Fall 2004 - National Ready Mixed Concrete Association

feature
OSHA
Record Keeping
Requirements for
Injuries and Illnesses
By Rick Maidens, Director of Safety and Risk Management, US Concrete, Inc. and
Thomas Harman, Director of Safety Compliance, NRMCA
In January 2002, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) changed its requirements for recording occupational injuries
and illnesses. Forms, new cases and general reporting criteria as well as
other categorical items were redefined. With only a few exceptions, the
new standard streamlined the process and made the procedure easier to
understand. None of the changes affected how incidence rates are calculated.
However, one change in particular affected the severity rate, which
is considered the indicator of how serious an injury/illness is. The severity
rate is an arbitrary measure and is based on the days away from work
from all injuries. After two years, the changes have been viewed as positive
by most workplace safety and health practitioners.
Forms
The designation for the forms changed and a form was added. The
current OSHA 300 log corresponds with the previously required
OSHA 200 log, and the OSHA 300A summary is a new form that
combines the injury/illness information located on the 300 log. The
injury report is called the OSHA 301, and this has replaced the 101
supplemental report of injury. This form details items about an injury
such as cause and preventive measures.
The greatest change is in the OSHA 300A summary log. The format
is such that the user is allowed to easily tally the information in a
way that facilitates incidence rates computation. The only additional
piece of information that is needed and now is required by the standard
to be kept by the employer is the number of employee hours.
The posting requirement for the 300A summary log is now ninety
days, compared with either 28 or 29 days, depending on whether it is a
leap year. Posting now must be done from February 1 through April 30
of each year.
New Cases
What constitutes a new case in the new standard A new case occurs
when an employee has not previously experienced an injury or illness
of the same type in the same part of the body. Another example is
when an employee experiences an injury or illness at work and has
completely healed from that condition, but some event or exposure at
work once again occurs that is of the same type and in the same part of
36 ı FALL 2004