9 replies to this topic

[MWidra]

This is a reminder that starting January 1, 2015, OSHA's immediate injury reporting criteria will change significantly.  The new criteria are:

 

1.  Any fatality must be reported within 8 hours of learning of it.

2.  Any single inpatient hospitalization, amputation (which would include a finger) or loss of an eye must be reported within 24 hours of learning of it.

 

For facilities where the local state administers the OSHA program, it would be wise to check with your state agency and see what they instruct you to do.

 

OSHA will be setting up an electronic reporting tool, which may become linked to the state-administered agencies.

 

It is unclear what you should do if your state does not update their regulations by January 1, because federal law has supremacy.  It's an argument for the lawyers...

 

Calling your local agency would be prudent, and do what they and your legal department tell you to do.

 

Of course, we all hope and pray that we will not ever have an incident to report, but it's good to be prepared.

 

Stay safe.

 

Martha

[RG3]

Yeah. My company has tried to make me the EHS manager as well as if QA doesn't have enough to do. For some reason they thought anything with the word audit in it automatically made it my responsibility. So when they heard Ethics audit, oh it's QA's responsibility.

[Snookie]

Yeah. My company has tried to make me the EHS manager as well as if QA doesn't have enough to do. For some reason they thought anything with the word audit in it automatically made it my responsibility. So when they heard Ethics audit, oh it's QA's responsibility.

 

Funny (though am not laughing) how that works as most of the companies I have worked thought the same way.  The new social responsibility audits are more an HR function than a food safety or quality function, yet now I am working on these as well now.  And the questions make me crazy. I can understand them in some parts of the world....but most of us in the civilized world follow the rules, but it may not appear that way based on the limited ways an answer can be given, and the how poorly worded question is asked.  (Rant done)

[Snookie]

BTW.....thank you Martha!  A great reminder. 

[MWidra]

Yeah. My company has tried to make me the EHS manager as well as if QA doesn't have enough to do. For some reason they thought anything with the word audit in it automatically made it my responsibility. So when they heard Ethics audit, oh it's QA's responsibility.

I got into food safety through occupational safety.  I came here because they wanted a safety officer, and they felt that I should be able to handle food safety at the same time.  Thankfully, we have an outstanding QA Manager, so I have him to back me up.  But it has required a paradigm shift.

 

What I have found is that there is a difference in how the standards for food safety are imposed from how OSHA standards are imposed.  OSHA regulations are mostly performance based, as long as what you do protects the workers from the hazards, exactly how you do things is not top priority.  When the regulations are standard based, which means that you must protect in a specified manner, OSHA spells it out EXACTLY what it needs to say and what item you need to use.  It's obvious, they hit you over the head with a verbal brick.  Laws are required to be plain on their face, you have to understand what is needed without lots of interpretation.

 

For the food safety standards from a private scheme, I had to realize that when they want you to have a policy that says what to do under a particular circumstance, having a more broad policy that says what to do for a broader category of circumstances does not suffice.  You've got to specify that circumstance that they mention, even though the more broad policy would protect the product in the same way.  I'm getting the hang of it, but that will only get more stringent as we move towards a GFSI certification. 

 

So now I will need to read rules differently depending on whether they are from a private scheme or a government regulation.

 

I do love the Due Process doctrine.  It makes government inspectors more consistent. 

 

Or maybe having a paralegal degree makes laws easier for me to work with.

 

Martha

[That Guy]

What is considered an amputation? Is a chunk of skin and some fingernail considered an amputation?

 

And is there a specific regulation that addresses when employees are required to seek medical attention, can they refuse to go to the hospital? 

 

 

Sorry to hijack the topic..

Edited by Cody13, 21 January 2015 - 07:48 PM.

[Setanta]

What is considered an amputation? Is a chunk of skin and some fingernail considered an amputation?

 

And is there a specific regulation that addresses when employees are required to seek medical attention, can they refuse to go to the hospital? 

 

 

Sorry to hijack the topic..

I would certainly double check with your medical provider, but it is probably a specific diagnosis. A certain percentage of an extremity.

[MWidra]

What is considered an amputation? Is a chunk of skin and some fingernail considered an amputation?

 

And is there a specific regulation that addresses when employees are required to seek medical attention, can they refuse to go to the hospital? 

 

 

Sorry to hijack the topic..

 

From the OSHA fact sheet on injury reporting:

"An amputation is defined as the traumatic loss of a limb or other external body part. Amputations include a part, such as a limb or appendage, that has been severed, cut off, amputated (either completely or partially); fingertip amputations with or without bone loss; medical amputations resulting from irreparable damage; and amputations of body parts that have since been reattached."  So a fingernail would not be considered an amputation, but the tip of the finger would.  At least how I read it.  I'd contact your local OSHA branch or state agency for clarification, if you like.

 

OSHA does not make rules requiring employees to seek medical attention, because that is an invasion of privacy.  The medical attention must be available to them, but you can't force someone to go to the doctor if they don't want to.

 

That now gets into the Workers Compensation rules and your insurance company, so it would be better to contact them.

 

For recordkeeping purposes, if a worker has to miss time due to an injury on the job, you must make a record and put it on the OSHA 300 form.  And if the criteria for notification of OSHA or your state agency are satisfied, then you need to report the injury to them.

 

Martha

Edited by MWidra, 21 January 2015 - 08:09 PM.

[That Guy]

Thank you for the responses, the OSHA website was not working yesterday and I had a hard time find the information I needed. 

[MWidra]

Thank you for the responses, the OSHA website was not working yesterday and I had a hard time find the information I needed. 

It was "challenging" for me too.  Google got me to the correct page on OSHA without going through the OSHA search engine, which I think was the issue.  I just had to season the request with the right flavors of keywords, lol.

 

It's Thursday, Please Pardon the Puns day for me.

 

Martha