Effective January 1, 2002, OSHA’s revised Part 1904 “Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses” standard will replace the former record-keeping obligations of the employer, less two proposed modifications. The modifications in question are: 1) definitions of “musculoskeletal disorder” and “ergonomic injury” and the requirement to indicate them on your OSHA 300 log (replacing the OSHA 200 log); and 2) the criteria for an employer to determine the level of hearing loss to be considered “significant” and therefore recordable. Congress will conduct public hearings on these items and the resulting determinations and effective dates will eventually be published in the Federal Register.
The revisions were initiated in the mid-1980s and only recently approved as a final rule. They can be downloaded from www.osha.gov. The standard is divided into seven sections, covered below.