CONN-OSHA Answers Your Safety Questions: January 2023
Welcome to our monthly column featuring CONN-OSHA experts answering some of the most commonly asked safety questions from CBIA member companies.
Most of the responses from Catherine Zinsser, a CONN-OSHA occupational safety training specialist, will be on recordkeeping since that is the focus of most questions she fields.
But if you’d like to ask her a question on another topic, please email CBIA’s Phillip Montgomery. He will treat all questions confidentially and never share any identifying company information with CONN-OSHA or anyone else.
Q: An employee is away from work as a result of an injury at work. During their time away, the employee becomes depressed and is unable to come back to work. The person has a diagnosis from a physician, saying it is a mental health disorder related to the injury. Is the depression recorded as a separate case?
A: Because the depression is a manifestation of the original injury, and no additional or new work exposure caused or contributed to the depression, it does not meet the “new case” criteria.
Any time away from work associated with the depression would be included in the originally recorded case.
Q: A supervisor was shouting at an employee. The employee felt stressed and his general doctor told him to take some time off from work. Is this an OSHA 300 recordable case?
A: Mental illnesses, such as depression or anxiety disorder, that have work-related stress as a contributing factor, are recordable if the employee voluntarily provides the employer with an opinion from a physician or other licensed healthcare professional with appropriate training and experience (psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse practitioner, etc.) stating that the employee has a mental illness that is work-related, and the case meets one or more of the general recording criteria.
Q: An employee comes in to work extremely distraught and stressed due to personal matters outside of work. While at work, the employee has an anxiety attack and faints. Would this be considered an OSHA recordable?
A: Injuries and illnesses that result solely from non-work-related events or exposures are not recordable under the exception at 1904.5(b)(2)(ii).
Mental illnesses, such as anxiety disorder, are recordable only if the employee voluntarily provides the employer with an opinion from a physician or other licensed healthcare professional with appropriate training and experience (psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse practitioner, etc.) stating that the employee has a mental illness that is work-related, and the case meets one or more of the general recording criteria.
Q: Is work-related stress recordable as a mental illness case?
A: Mental illnesses, such as depression or anxiety disorder, that have work-related stress as a contributing factor, are recordable if the employee voluntarily provides the employer with an opinion from a physician or other licensed health care professional with appropriate training and experience (psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse practitioner, etc.) stating that the employee has a mental illness that is work-related, and the case meets one or more of the general recording criteria.
See sections 1904.5(b)(2)(ix) and 1904.7.
For more information, contact CBIA’s Phillip Montgomery (860.244.1982).
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