By Kevin B. Keith, Director of Safety Services, ABC Keystone

Reviewing injury and illness logs is a fantastic way to focus in on and identify safety issues. The OSHA 300 Log is a tool that indicates where and what injuries are occurring in your workplace. Review of the injury types, the mode of injury and job function that was being performed at the time of the injury helps to narrow your focus. If there are several injuries related to slips, trips or falls, this could indicate housekeeping issues. Cuts or lacerations to specific body parts could show the need for improved utility knife safety and proper use. Strains and sprains could indicate ergonomic issues that could lead to improved processes. These are just a couple of examples of how the use and review of your OSHA 300 Logs can improve your safety. Obviously, if you are not properly maintaining the records or not properly identifying the root cause this could lead to misinformation. Properly investigating all near misses and injury related incidents and improved documentation of the injuries will greatly aid in the identification of problem areas.

ABC Keystone offers training both for accident/incident investigations and Recordkeeping. Go to abckeystone.org and look at the upcoming course offerings. If you don’t see a course that you are looking for, please contact Kevin Keith, Director of Safety Services, to discuss a customized training for your company.