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The following is an extract of the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration’s (OSHA) publication 3169 covering workers’ access to their
exposure and medical records. This highlights what employers should know
concerning these records, as outlined in the OSHA Standard Title 29 of the Code
of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 1910.1020, Access to Employee Exposure and
Medical Records.
What should an employer do?
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Preserve and maintain accurate medical and exposure records for each worker.
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Inform workers of the existence, location and availability of those medical and
exposure records.
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Give workers any informational material regarding the standard that OSHA makes
available.
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Make records available to workers, their designated representatives and OSHA,
as required.
What types of records must an employer maintain?
You must maintain your workers’ medical and exposure records. Exposure records
include:
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Monitoring results of workplace air or measurements of toxic substances or
harmful physical agents in the workplace, including personal, area, grab, wipe
or other forms of sampling results.
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Biological monitoring results, such as blood and urine test results.
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Material safety data sheets containing information about a substance’s hazards
to human health.
Medical records are those records concerning a worker’s health status that were
created or maintained by a physician, nurse, health care professional or
technician. Medical records include:
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Medical and employment questionnaires or histories.
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Results of medical examinations and laboratory tests.
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Medical opinions, diagnoses, progress notes and recommendations.
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First-aid records.
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Descriptions of treatments and prescriptions.
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Worker medical complaints.
In addition, you must maintain any analyses (i.e., compilations of data or
statistical studies) of medical and exposure records that concern working
conditions or the workplace.
Do employers have to make all records available?
No, these are not considered medical records under the standard:
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Physical specimens, such as blood and urine samples.
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Records concerning health insurance claims if they are (1) maintained
separately from your medical program and its records, and (2) not accessible by
worker name or other personal identifier (e.g., Social Security number or home
address).
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Records created only for use in litigation that are privileged from discovery.
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Records created as part of voluntary worker assistance programs, such as
records for alcohol and drug abuse or personal counseling, if they are
maintained separately from your medical program and its records.
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Trade secret information involving manufacturing processes or a percentage of a
chemical substance in a mixture, as long as you inform health professionals and
workers, and their designated representatives, that the information has been
deleted from medical and exposure records. If the exclusion of the trade secret
information substantially impairs the evaluation of when and where the exposure
occurred, however, the employer must provide alternative information to the
worker.
What if an employer does not have exposure records for a particular worker?
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If an employer does not have exposure records that document the amount of a
toxic substance or harmful physical agent that the requesting worker has been
exposed to, the employer should give the requesting worker the records of other
workers (with personal identifiers removed) with similar duties or working
conditions that reasonably indicate the amount and nature of exposures the
worker requesting the records may have had.
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The employer may be required to supply exposure records that reasonably
indicate the amount and nature of toxic substances or harmful physical agents
at a particular workplace, or used in a specific working condition, to which
the requesting worker is being assigned or transferred.
How long does an employer have to keep worker exposure and medical records and
other exposure information?
Unless another OSHA rule specifically provides a different period of time, you
must keep medical records for at least the duration of the worker’s employment
plus 30 years, except for:
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Health insurance claim records that the employer maintains separately from the
employer’s medical program and its records.
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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.
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Medical records of workers who have worked for less than 1 year, as long as the
employer offers all such records to the worker upon termination of employment.
Unless another OSHA rule specifically provides a different period of time, you
must keep exposure records for at least 30 years, except for:
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Background data related to environmental or workplace monitoring or measuring,
such as laboratory reports and worksheets, must only be retained for 1 year, so
long as the employer preserves certain interpretive documents relevant to the
interpretation of the data for 30 years.
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Material safety data sheets and other specified records concerning the identity
of a substance or agent, so long as the employer keeps some record of the
identity, preferably the chemical name and information on when and where it was
used, for 30 years.
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Biological monitoring results designated as exposure records by specific OSHA
standards shall be preserved and maintained as required by the specific
standard governing their use.
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Analyses using medical or exposure records for at least 30 years.
What if an employer goes out of business?
You must transfer all records subject to the standard to the successor employer;
or, if there is no successor, notify current workers at least 3 months before
the business closes of their right to access their records. You should either
transfer the records required to be preserved under the 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.
Does the standard cover an employer who runs a business in a state that operates
its own job safety plan?
Yes. OSHA requires states with their own safety and health programs to have
rules and enforcement programs that are at least as effective as those of the
federal program. If you are an employer in a state plan, you have at least the
same responsibilities and rights as employers in states under federal OSHA
jurisdiction, but your state plan may have additional requirements.
COPYRIGHT ©2003, ISO Services Properties, Inc.
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