ghs injuries involving chemicals

1. Making INJURY ILLNESS Forms,
EXPOSURE RECORDS Accessible,
Secure WHAT IS CONSIDERED AN
EXPOSURE HAZARD?
USA Exposure hazards are “toxic substances and harmful physical agents.” These
may include:
• Metals and dusts (such as lead, cadmium, and silica)
• Biological agents (such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi)
• Physical stress (such as noise, heat, cold, vibration, repetitive motion, and
ionizing and non-ionizing radiation)
Employers Must Make Employee Injury and Illness Forms Accessible, Yet Secure.
This is accomplished by:
• Protecting and maintaining accurate employee medical records, exposure
records, and injury report forms for each employee. Medical records and
other employee-accessible records include
o Medical and employment questionnaires or histories
o Results of medical examinations and laboratory tests
o Medical opinions, diagnoses, progress notes, recommendations
o First-aid records
o Descriptions of treatments and prescriptions
o Employee medical complaints
o Any analyses – compilations of data or statistical studies – about
employee medical and exposure records related to work site
conditions. (If any of that information includes identifying
information for individual employees, remove the indentifying

2. information (name, address, social security number, job title, etc.)
before allowing the employee access to the records.
• Communicate with workers on the existence, location, and availability of
those injury and illness records.
• Inform employees of any OSHA updates to the Injury and Illness standards
that apply to your industry.
• Make injury report forms and other records available to the employees,
their designated representatives, and to OSHA, as required. This is
accomplished by:
o Giving the employee a copy of the document free of charge,
within a reasonable amount of time, OR
o Providing equipment for the employee to copy the document, OR
o Loaning the copy to the employee to copy off-site, if no
duplication equipment is available
Not ALL Records are Required to be Made Available to the Employees.
Examples of Injury and Illness Records that Do NOT have to be released, as they are
not considered “medical records:"
• Physical specimens (blood and urine samples, for example)
• Health Insurance Claims Records not maintained with the medical
program and records and not accessible by specific name or other
identifier. (In other words, the employer is not required typically to release
statistical information.)
• Records created solely for use in litigation that are privileged from
discovery
• Records created as part of a Voluntary Employee Assistance Program
(think alcohol and drug abuse or personal counseling), as long as they are
maintained separately from your medical program and its records

3. • Trade Secret Information about manufacturing processes or a percentage
of a chemical substance in a mixture, as long as health professionals and
your employees/employee designated representatives are informed that
such information has been deleted. (Be aware that if the exclusion of the
trade secret information substantially impairs the evaluation of when and
where the exposure occurred, then alternative information consistent with
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1020 must be provided.)
Identifying Which Records Can Be Accessed by Employee Representatives
• Employee Exposure Records – Recognized or certified collective
bargaining agents may access employee exposure records without the
employee’s written consent. The designated representative MUST request
access from the employer in writing, specifying which records they are
requesting, and the occupational health reason for accessing the records.
(Tell them WHAT and WHY!)
• Employee Medical Records – Designated Representatives may access the
medical records of any employees who have given them written
permission. Only the records for that employee may be accessed.
• Analysis – Recognized or certified collective bargaining agents may
access the records WITHOUT individual employee written consent. The
employer MUST remove personal indentifying information about each
employee OR prevent access to any information that could be used to
identify the individual employees whose records are the subject of the
analysis.
If No Exposure Records are Available for a Specific Employee, You Must:
• Give the requesting employee the records of other employees (with all
personal information removed) with similar duties or working conditions
that could reasonably indicate the amount and nature of exposure the
requesting employee may have had.

4. • You may be required to supply exposure records that could reasonably
indicate the amount and nature of toxic substances and/or harmful
physical agents at a particular workplace, or used in a specific working
condition, to which the requesting employee is being assigned or
transferred.
How Long to Keep Employee Exposure, Medical Records, and Other Exposure
Information:
Unless another OSHA rule specifically applies to your situation and places a different
time period expectation on you, you generally must keep these types of records as
follows:
• Employee medical records for at least the duration of the employee’s
employment PLUS 30 years. Exceptions to this rule include:
o Health insurance claim records that you maintain separately from
your medical program and its records.
o First-aid records made onsite by a non-physician of one-time
treatment and later observations of minor scratches, scrapes, or
other injuries that did not involve medical treatment, loss of
consciousness, restriction of work or motion, or transfer to
another job.
o Medical records of employees who have worked for less than one
year, as long as you offer all such records to the employee upon
termination of employment.
• Employee exposure records for at least 30 years. Exceptions include the
following information:
o Background data related to environmental or workplace
monitoring or measuring – such as laboratory reports and
worksheets – must only be retained for one year, so long as you

5. maintain interpretive documents relevant to the interpretation of
the data for 30 years.
o You do NOT need to keep MSDSs (Material Safety Data Sheets)
and other specified records about the identity of a substance or
agent (once it is no longer used), as long as you keep some record
of the identity, preferably the chemical name and information on
when and where it was used, for 30 years.
• Biological monitoring results designated as exposure records by specific
OSHA standards MUST be maintained according to the specific standard
that governs their use.
Guidelines on Maintaining Exposure Records After Going Out of Business
• Transfer all exposure records to the successor employer.
• If there is no successor, notify current employees at least 3 months before
the business closes about their rights to access their records.
• If there is no successor, you must also transfer the records required to be
preserved under the OSHA standard to the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), OR notify the Director of NIOSH
in writing of your intent to dispose of the records 3 months before that
disposal.