Expert Insights: Injuries aren’t funny but some are nearly unbelievable
After more than 20 years of answering thousands of workplace injury questions, I wanted to share some of the most unusual cases I’ve heard from customers. I’m not making light of the people who were injured, but some incidents just leave you shaking your head.
Accidental gunshot
One incident resulted in two recordable cases on the employer’s OSHA 300 Log. The company held an all-day meeting at an off-site location to minimize disruptions. Still, the employees who attended were present in the work environment.
When a female employee went to the restroom, she accidentally discharged the gun in her purse, wounding herself in the leg. Although OSHA provides an exception for intentionally self-inflicted injuries, this injury was not intentional and no other exception applied. She needed medical treatment, so this was a work-related case that the employer had to record on the 300 Log.
Other employees heard the gunshot and rushed to the scene. Upon seeing the blood, one of them passed out. Since this loss of consciousness occurred in the work environment, that incident was also recordable on the 300 Log.
Food poisoning
Most cases involving employees eating or drinking on the premises are exempt from the presumption of work-relatedness under 1904.5(b)(2)(iv). However, if an employee “gets food poisoning from food supplied by the employer, the case would be considered work-related” according to that regulation.
An employer hosted a company party during the summer and supplied food for the outdoor event. Apparently the potato salad went bad because the following day, about 50 employees called in sick due to food poisoning. If an employee requests a day off and the employer agrees that the worker needs time off to recover from a workplace exposure, that counts as a Days Away case. See our article, If an injured employee requests a day off, is that Days Away?
I could only imagine the safety manager filling out 50 separate 301 Forms during the week after this celebration, then adding them all to the 300 Log.
You did what?
This next story is gross, so be warned before continuing. An employee sustained a relatively minor laceration on his upper arm, which was bleeding. For some reason, another employee who stopped to assist decided to lick the blood off the wound.
This not only obligated the employer to evaluate a potential bloodborne pathogen exposure, but as a further complication, one employee admitted that he’d previously been a heroin addict and might have hepatitis.
When our experts respond to customer questions, we rarely hear back about the final outcome, so we don’t know the disposition of this case. But it certainly created a lot of headaches for the employer.
These stories might have made you cringe, but perhaps you feel a bit better about recording some of your own unusual workplace incidents.
Key to remember: However strange an incident, if an injury or illness occurs in the work environment, OSHA presumes the case is work-related, and the exceptions are very narrow.
