CONN-OSHA Answers Your Safety Questions: June 2022
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: I would like to gain more clarity about how to classify a work-related loss of consciousness due to exposure to H2S. Is this recordable? If it is recordable, is it an injury or an illness?
A: You must record a work-related injury or illness if the worker becomes unconscious, regardless of the length of time the employee remains unconscious.
Employers should look at the examples of injuries and illnesses in the Classifying Injuries and Classifying Illnesses section of the Recordkeeping Forms Package for guidance.
Poisoning by hydrogen sulfide is included as an example for Column M(4) on the OSHA Log.
Q: My employee fell and bruised her knee. It was elevated and iced for 30 minutes. She did not lose any work time. The next day, she went to a walk-in clinic and had it X-rayed. There was no fracture.
Because she still had pain, she saw our medical director who prescribed ice and gave her a cane for temporary use to keep weight off it. She has missed no work. Is this recordable?
A: No. All of the treatments she received are considered first aid for OSHA recordkeeping purposes.
Q: If an employee developed a rash from oil used in the manufacturing process and was given an OTC cream at the clinic, is that considered “more than first aid?”
A: No, using a non-prescription medication at non-prescription strength is considered first aid for OSHA recordkeeping purposes.
Note that when medications are available in both prescription and non-prescription form, a recommendation by a physician or other licensed health care professional to use a non-prescription medication at prescription strength is considered medical treatment for recordkeeping purposes.
For more information, contact CBIA’s Phillip Montgomery (860.244.1982).
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