OSHA Issues Letter of Interpretation on Recordability

A letter of interpretation posted to the OSHA website addresses questions related to the recordability of an injury resulting from a fire caused by a worker’s personal rechargeable lithium-ion battery. In the scenario posited by Kenneth T. Brown, a lawyer for Consolidated Nuclear Security, an employee brings the battery into the workplace for use in e-cigarettes, carries it in their pants pocket, and is injured when the battery catches fire. Brown asks whether such an injury is work-related for purposes of OSHA recordkeeping.

OSHA’s response, signed by Lee Ann Jillings, director of technical support and emergency management, addresses several potential exceptions to the agency’s recordkeeping requirements for this situation and finds, in each case, that the exceptions do not apply.

According to the regulation that governs recordkeeping requirements for occupational injuries and illnesses—29 CFR Part 1904—employers “must record each fatality, injury and illness” that is work related. OSHA states in its letter that the determination of work-relatedness relies only on whether work is “a tangible, discernible causal factor” and not on “the relative weight of occupational and non-occupational causal factors.” The “geographic presumption,” which holds that an injury occurring in the work environment is assumed to be work related, also applies in this scenario, according to OSHA’s letter.

Since the injury is work related, it is recordable unless an exception from 1904.5(b)(2) applies. The exceptions concern matters such as whether the employee was present in the workplace as a member of the public instead of as an employee or is preparing food or drink for personal consumption.

Although OSHA finds that the injury is recordable, its letter clarifies that this determination does not imply that the employer is necessarily responsible. “Both the Note to Subpart A of the recordkeeping regulation (29 CFR §1904.0) and the Overview to OSHA Form 300, Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses [. . .] expressly state that recording a case does not indicate that an employer or employee was at fault or that an OSHA standard was violated,” the letter reads.

For more information, refer to the letter on OSHA’s website.