[[Federal Register: May 5, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 86)][Proposed Rules] [Page 24505-24509]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr05my10-28]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
29 CFR Part 1904
[Docket No. OSHA-2010-0024]
Modernization of OSHA's Injury and Illness Data Collection
Process
AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Labor
ACTION: Stakeholder meetings and request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: OSHA invites interested parties to participate in informal
stakeholder meetings on the modernization of OSHA's injury and illness
data collection system. OSHA encourages stakeholders who cannot
participate to submit written comments. OSHA needs to gather
information from stakeholders in order to be able to modify its current
injury and illness recordkeeping regulation and develop a modernized
recordkeeping system in ways that will help OSHA, employers, employees,
researchers, and the public prevent workplace injuries and illnesses as
well as, supporting President Obama's Open Government Initiative,
increase the ability of the public to easily find, download, and use
the resulting dataset generated and held by the Federal Government. The
informal discussions at the stakeholder meetings and the written
comments from stakeholders will help give OSHA this information.
DATES: The meeting dates are:
May 25, 2010, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Washington, DC.
June 3, 2010, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Chicago, IL.
Written comments must be submitted (postmarked, sent, or received)
by June 18, 2010.
ADDRESSES:
I. Registration
Submit your notice of intent to participate in one of the scheduled
meetings by one of the following:
Electronic. Register at: https://www2.ergweb.com/projects/conferences/osha/register-datacollection.htm
(follow the instructions online).
Facsimile. Fax your request to: 781-674-2906 and label it
"Attention: OSHA Data Collection Process Stakeholder Meeting
Registration."
Regular mail, express delivery, hand (courier) delivery,
and messenger service. Send your request to: Eastern Research Group,
Inc., 110 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington, MA 02421; Attention OSHA Data
Collection Process Stakeholder Meeting Registration.
II. Meetings
In Washington, DC, the meeting will be held on May 25, 2010, from
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the U.S. Department of Labor, Frances
Perkins Building, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210.
In Chicago, Illinois, the meeting will be held on June 3, 2010,
from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the OSHA Training Institute, 2020 South
Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights, IL 60005.
III. Public Comment
You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. OSHA-2010-0024,
by any one of the following methods:
Electronically: You may submit comments and attachments
electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, the Federal eRulemaking
Portal. Follow the instructions on-line for making electronic
submissions.
Fax: If your comments, including attachments, do not
exceed 10 pages, you may fax them to the OSHA Docket Office at (202)
693-1648.
Mail, hand delivery, express mail, messenger or courier
service: You must submit three copies of your comments and attachments
to the OSHA Docket Office, Docket No. OSHA-2010-0024, U.S. Department
of Labor, Room N-2625, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC
20210; telephone (202) 693-2350 (OSHA's TTY number is (877) 889-5627).
Deliveries (hand, express mail, messenger and courier service) are
accepted during the Department of Labor's and Docket Office's normal
business hours, 8:15 a.m.-4:45 p.m., e.t.
Instructions: All submissions must include the docket number
(Docket No. OSHA-2010-0024). Because of security-related procedures,
submission by regular mail may result in significant delay. Please
contact the OSHA Docket Office about security procedures for hand
delivery, express delivery, messenger or courier.
All comments, including any personal information you provide, are
placed in the public docket without change and may be made available on
http://www.regulations.gov. Therefore, OSHA cautions you about
submitting personal information such as Social Security numbers and
birthdates.
Docket: To read or download submissions in response to the request
for public comment, go to Docket No. OSHA-2010-0024 at: http://www.regulations.gov.
All submissions are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. However,
some information (e.g., copyrighted material) is not publicly available to
read or download through that Web page. All submissions, including
copyrighted material, are available for inspection and copying at
the OSHA Docket Office.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Information is available from the
following sources:
Press inquiries. Jennifer Ashley, Director, OSHA Office of
Communications, Room N-3647, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution
Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210; telephone: (202) 693-1999.
General and technical information. Miriam Schoenbaum, OSHA
Directorate of Evaluation and Analysis, Room N-3648, U.S. Department of
Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210, telephone
(202) 693-1841, electronic mail (e-mail) Schoenbaum.Miriam@dol.gov.
Copies of this Federal Register notice. Electronic copies
are available at http://www.regulations.gov. This Federal Register
notice, as well as news releases and other relevant information, also
are available on the OSHA Web page at http://www.osha.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
In 1970, Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act
(29 U.S.C. 651 et seq.) (the Act or the OSH Act). Congress directed the
Secretary through section 8(c)(2) of the OSH Act to "* * * prescribe
regulations requiring employers to maintain accurate records of, and to
make periodic reports on, work-related deaths, injuries and illnesses
other than minor injuries requiring only first aid treatment and which
do not involve medical treatment, loss of consciousness, restriction of
work or motion, or transfer to another job * * *" Section 24(a) of the
Act requires the Secretary to develop and maintain an effective program
of collection, compilation, and analysis of occupational safety and
health statistics. This section directs the Secretary to "compile
accurate statistics on work injuries and illnesses which shall include
all disabling, serious, or significant injuries and illnesses, whether
or not involving loss of time from work, other than minor injuries
requiring only first aid treatment and which do not involve medical
treatment, loss of consciousness, restriction of work or motion, or
transfer to another job."
29 CFR part 1904, Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and
Illnesses, was one of the first regulations promulgated by OSHA. First
issued in 1971, this rule requires employers to record information on
the occurrence of injuries and illnesses in their workplaces. The
employer is obligated to record work-related injuries and illnesses
that meet one or more of certain recording criteria. In accordance with
the OSH Act, OSHA requires employers to record work-related injuries
and illnesses that involve death, loss of consciousness, days away from
work, restriction of work or motion, transfer to another job, medical
treatment other than first aid, or diagnosis of a significant injury or
illness by a physician or other licensed health care professional.
29 CFR part 1904 requires all employers under OSHA jurisdiction
with 11 or more employees to keep OSHA injury and illness records,
unless the establishment is classified in a specific low-hazard retail,
service, finance, insurance or real estate industry. In addition,
employers with ten or fewer employees must keep OSHA injury and illness
records if OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics informs them in
writing that they must keep records under part 1904.41 (Annual OSHA
injury and illness survey of ten or more employers) or part 1904.42
(Requests from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for data). The
recordkeeping rule currently covers roughly 750,000 employers with
roughly 1,500,000 establishments. Every year, for all of the employer's
establishments, each of these employers must complete OSHA Form 300A
(Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses). In addition, if there
is one or more injury or illness at the establishment, the employer
must complete OSHA Form 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report) for
each injury or illness and record each injury or illness on OSHA Form
300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses). OSHA estimates that
more than 3,000,000 injuries and illnesses are recorded on these forms
each year.
The forms contain a substantial amount of information pertaining to
the injured or ill employee and the circumstances surrounding the
injury or illness. The following data elements are found on the OSHA
Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) and OSHA Form 301
(Injury and Illness Incident Report): Name, title, phone number of
person completing form; Date form completed; Date and time of event;
Time employee began work; Employee's name; Employee's job title; Where
the event occurred; A brief description of injury or illness, parts of
body affected, and object/substance that directly injured or made
person ill; Severity of the case (death, days away from work, job
transfer or restriction, other recordable cases); Number of days
injured or ill worker was away from work or restricted; Full name,
address, date of birth, date hired, and gender of employee; Name of
physician or other health care professional; Name and address of
facility if treatment was given away from the workplace; Emergency room
treatment and inpatient hospitalization (if applicable); Detailed
descriptions of what the employee was doing just before the incident
occurred; how the injury occurred, the injury or illness, and the
object or substance that directly harmed the employee; date of death
(if applicable).
The records required by this rule are an important source of
information for OSHA. During the initial stages of an inspection, an
OSHA representative reviews the injury and illness forms maintained by
the establishment as an aid to focusing the inspection effort on
identified safety and health hazards. OSHA also uses establishment-
specific injury and illness information to help target its intervention
efforts to the worksites experiencing high rates of injuries and
illnesses and to specific safety and health hazards. Injury and illness
data help OSHA identify the scope of occupational safety and health
problems and decide whether regulatory intervention, compliance
assistance, or other measures are warranted. These data are also of
great importance to employers and workers in understanding and reducing
the incidence of injuries and illnesses in specific workplaces.
Data Collections: Currently, the Department of Labor conducts two
annual data collections which gather information entered on the OSHA
Forms. The first, conducted by OSHA, is the OSHA Data Initiative (ODI);
the second, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is the Survey
of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII). While both collections
are based on the same source of information, the two differ
substantially in the scope and use of the data collected.
The OSHA Data Initiative: In 1995, OSHA established the annual OSHA
Data Initiative (ODI) to collect data from approximately 80,000
establishments on injuries and acute illnesses attributable to work-
related activities in private-sector industries. 29 CFR part 1904.41
(Annual OSHA injury and illness survey of ten or more employers)
provides OSHA the authority to conduct this data collection. The
primary purpose of the ODI is to give OSHA the capability of focusing
its resources on those establishments with serious safety and health
problems. The ODI sample primarily consists of larger establishments
(those with 40 or more employees) in industries with historically high
rates of occupational injury and illness. Sample selection is designed
to ensure that all establishments in the potential data collection
universe are surveyed at least once during a three-year cycle. It is
not designed to produce estimates of injuries and illnesses for the
nation or a particular industry.
Currently, the ODI only collects summary injury and illness data
from OSHA Form 300A. From the data collected, the Agency calculates
establishment-specific injury and illness rates and uses these rates to
target enforcement and compliance assistance activities. Specifically,
the data are used to support OSHA's Site-Specific Targeting (SST)
enforcement program and its High Rate Letter outreach program. The
Agency also makes the individual establishment data available to the
public from its website and through Data.gov.
The BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII): The
Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts the SOII, in which employer reports
are collected from about 235,000 private-industry establishments.
Response to the BLS survey is mandatory, as required by 29 CFR 1904.42
(Requests from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for data).
The survey provides estimates of the number and frequency
(incidence rates) of nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses, based
on the OSHA Forms kept by a scientifically-selected probability sample
of private-industry employers who were selected to represent the
private sector for the Nation and individual industries. Data (through
2008) are classified according to the 2002 North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS), the 2000 Standard Occupational
Classification (SOC) Manual, and 1997 Standards for Federal Data on
Race and Ethnicity, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB). Race and ethnicity are the only data elements in the survey for
which reporting is not mandatory. BLS has generated estimates of
injuries and illnesses for many of the 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-digit
private-sector industries defined in the North American Industry
Classification System. The SOII also provides detailed information on
the circumstances of cases involving days away from work and the
characteristics of the injured or ill workers.
For each incident that led to an injury or illness that required
one or more days away from work to recuperate, the survey uses four
characteristics to describe the circumstances of the case. These
characteristics are classified using the Occupational Injury and
Illness Classification System. These four characteristics are:
Nature--the physical characteristics of the disabling
injury or illness, such as cuts/lacerations, fractures, or sprains/
strains;
Part of body affected--the part of body directly linked to
the nature of injury or illness cited, such as back, finger, or eye;
Event or exposure--the manner in which the injury or
illness was produced or inflicted, such as falls, overexertion, or
repetitive motion; and
Source--the object, substance, exposure, or bodily motion
that directly produced or inflicted the disabling condition, such as
chemicals, vehicles, or machinery.
Under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical
Efficiency Act of 2002, BLS is prohibited from releasing establishment-
specific data for any purpose other than statistical analysis and
therefore does not release establishment data to the general public or
OSHA.
II. Issues
One of the priorities of President Obama's Open Government
Initiative is to increase the ability of the public to easily find,
download, and use datasets generated and held by the Federal
Government. OSHA is considering whether the up-to-date, establishment-
specific, injury/illness-specific electronic data collected by an
improved and modernized OSHA recordkeeping system and made public under
the Open Government Initiative would encourage innovative ideas and
allow employers, employees, and researchers to participate in improving
occupational safety and health.
While both the OSHA and BLS data collection systems provide a vast
amount of information, both have limitations that affect OSHA's ability
to make decisions based on data.
The ODI currently provides only summary data for each
establishment; these data do not allow OSHA to identify specific types
of hazards or problems in a given establishment. Further, there is as
long as a two- or three-year lag in the current OSHA data collection
system between the occurrence of an injury or illness and OSHA's use of
the data.
BLS data are available in the year following the calendar year in
which the injury or illness occurs and provides a wide range of
estimates by industry, establishment size, and details of the injuries
and illnesses. These data indicate which types of injury or illness
occur in establishments in a particular industry and establishment
size; specifics vary from establishment to establishment. BLS data
identify, for example, the industries that have reported the highest
rate of amputations or musculo-skeletal disorders; they do not identify
the specific establishments where such cases actually did occur and are
likely to occur in the future.
III. Topics and Questions for Stakeholder Meetings and Public Comments
OSHA would like to gather information about a modernized electronic
recordkeeping system from a wide range of interests. Topics include:
Scope of the data collected
Uses of the data collected
Methods of data collection
Economic impacts
Additional topics
In addition, OSHA is interested in answers to the following
specific questions:
What recordkeeping data should the electronic
recordkeeping system collect?
Would linking the recordkeeping data with other sources
(e.g., medical records, workers' compensation records) increase its
usefulness and/or accuracy? If so, which sources? What potential
technical and legal hurdles exist in linking to other data sources, and
how might these be overcome?
Should the electronic recordkeeping system collect data
from every employer under OSHA jurisdiction for every case, or should
it be limited to a subset of employers and/or cases, for example based
on size, industry, incidence rate, occupation, or case severity?
What purposes could the collected recordkeeping data serve
for OSHA as well as other users?
How could the collected data be used to make national or
sector-specific estimates of injury and illness?
What would be the strengths and limitations of the
collected data?
Would publishing data indicating the number of employees
and number of employee hours worked at specific establishments disclose
confidential commercial or trade secret information?
How can OSHA use state and other federal agency data
collection experience in developing an electronic recordkeeping system?
How should OSHA design an effective quality assurance
program for data entered into the electronic recordkeeping system?
Should data be collected on a flow basis or periodically,
e.g., quarterly? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each
approach to data collection?
What would be the benefits and disadvantages of
implementing a new electronic recordkeeping system incrementally, e.g.,
starting with the largest employers or the most severe injuries?
What training and outreach will be necessary for employers
to comply with the requirements of the electronic recordkeeping system?
How can OSHA ensure that small-business employers are able
to comply with the requirements of the electronic recordkeeping system?
What analytical tools could be developed and provided to
employers to increase their ability to effectively use the injury and
illness data?
How can OSHA improve the accuracy of recordkeeping data by
encouraging reporting and recording of work-related injuries and
illnesses and discouraging underreporting and underrecording of work-
related injuries and illnesses?
IV. Public Participation
Stakeholder Meetings
At the stakeholder meetings, OSHA will gather information about a
modernized electronic recordkeeping system from a wide range of
interests. The meetings will be conducted as a group discussion. To
encourage group interaction, OSHA will not allow formal presentations.
There will be two sessions at each meeting, each accommodating
approximately 25 participants and lasting about four hours. Members of
the general public who want to observe but not participate in the
meetings are welcome on a first-come, first-served basis, as space
permits. OSHA staff will be present to take part in the discussions.
Logistics for the meetings are managed by Eastern Research Group (ERG),
which will provide a facilitator and compile notes summarizing the
discussion; these notes will not identify individual speakers. ERG also
will make an audio recording of each session to ensure that the summary
notes are accurate; these recordings will not be transcribed. The
summary notes will be available on OSHA's Web page at http://www.osha.gov.
The meetings are as follows:
In Washington, DC, the meeting will be held on May 25,
2010, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the U.S. Department of Labor,
Frances Perkins Building, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC,
20210.
In Chicago, Illinois, the meeting will be held on June 3,
2010, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the OSHA Training Institute, 2020
South Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights, IL, 60005.
You may submit notice of intent to participate in one of the
stakeholder meetings electronically, by facsimile, or by hard copy. See
the ADDRESSES section of this notice for the registration Web site,
facsimile number, and address. To register electronically, follow the
instructions provided on the Web site. To register by mail or
facsimile, please indicate the following:
Name, address, phone, fax, and e-mail.
First and second preferences of meeting time.
Organization for which you work.
Organization you represent (if different).
Stakeholder category: government, industry, standards-
developing organization, research or testing agency, union, trade
association, insurance, consultant, or other (if other, please be
specific).
Industry sector (if applicable).
Electronic copies of this Federal Register notice, as well as news
releases and other relevant documents, are available on the OSHA Web
page at: http://www.osha.gov.
Public Comment
OSHA invites comment on all aspects of the modernization of OSHA's
injury and illness data collection system. Interested parties must
submit comments by June 18, 2010. The Agency will carefully review and
evaluate all comments, information, and data, as well as all other
information in the record, to determine how to proceed.
You may submit comments in response to this document (1)
electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, which is the Federal
eRulemaking Portal; (2) by facsimile (FAX); or (3) by hard copy. All
submissions must identify the Agency name and the OSHA docket number
(Docket No. OSHA-2010-0024) of this notice. You may supplement
electronic submissions by uploading document files electronically. If,
instead, you wish to mail additional materials in reference to an
electronic or fax submission, you must submit them to the OSHA Docket
Office (see ADDRESSES section). The additional materials must clearly
identify your electronic comments by name, date, and docket number, so
OSHA can attach them to your comments.
Because of security-related procedures, the use of regular mail may
cause a significant delay in the receipt of submissions. For
information about security procedures concerning the delivery of
materials by hand, express delivery, messenger or courier service,
please contact the OSHA Docket Office at (202) 693-2350 (TTY (877) 889-
5627).
Access to Docket
Comments in response to this Federal Register notice are posted
without change at http://www.regulations.gov,
the Federal eRulemaking portal.
Therefore, OSHA cautions individuals about submitting personal
information such as social security numbers and birthdates. Exhibits
referenced in this Federal Register document are posted at http://www.regulations.gov.
Although submissions are listed in the http://www.regulations.govindexes,
some information (e.g., copyrighted material) is not publicly available
to read or download through that Web page.
All comments are available for inspection and copying at the
OSHA Docket Office. Information on using http://www.regulations.gov to
submit comments and access dockets is available on the Web page.
Contact the OSHA Docket Office for information about materials not
available through the Web page and for assistance in using the Internet
to locate docket submissions.
Electronic copies of this Federal Register document are available
at: http://www.regulations.gov. This document, as well as news releases
and other relevant information, also are available at OSHA's Web page
at: http://www.osha.gov.
V. Authority and Signature
This document was prepared under the direction of David Michaels,
PhD, MPH, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and
Health, U.S. Department of Labor, pursuant to sections 4, 6, and 8 of
the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 653, 655,
657), 29 CFR part 1911, and Secretary's Order 5-2007 (72 FR 31160).
Signed at Washington, DC, on April 26, 2010.
David Michaels,
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.
[FR Doc. 2010-10163 Filed 5-4-10; 8:45 am]
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