Injured by Personal Lithium Battery at Work—Is It Recordable?

OSHA recently published a Letter of Interpretation clarifying whether an injury caused by fire would be a recordable injury in this scenario:

• The employee brings rechargeable lithium-ion batteries from home to the workplace.
• The batteries are not used in any equipment or device related to employee work duties.
• The battery terminals are unprotected.
• The employee or employees improperly carry the batteries.
• A fire is sparked by the batteries.

The employer asked whether any regulatory exclusions for recordable injuries applied to the scenario; in part, because the precipitating event could have occurred off-site before work began.

OSHA: Exceptions Do Not Apply

“…none of the exceptions to work-relatedness in section 1904.5(b)(2) apply to the scenario you describe.”

Key Explanations From OSHA

In this scenario, the precipitating event is the fire in the workplace that injured the employee. In other words, the fire was the identifiable event that the burn injury resulted from.

Section 1904.5(b)(3) of OSHA's recordkeeping regulation does not apply in this scenario, assuming that the employee was at the workplace during assigned work hours and present as a condition of employment.

The exception in Section 1904.5(b)(2)(iv) related to eating, drinking, or preparing food or drink would not apply because, at the time of the injury, the employee was not eating, drinking, or preparing food or drink for personal consumption.

The exception in section 1904.5(b)(2)(vi) related to personal grooming also would not apply to the scenario. Section 1904.5(b)(2)(vi) provides that a case will not be considered work-related if the injury or illness is solely the result of personal grooming, self-medication for a non-work-related condition, or is intentionally self-inflicted.

Takeaway

This scenario, OSHA clarified in its Letter of Interpretation, results in a recordable injury.

Unless a regulatory exception found at 29 CFR 1904.5 accurately matches the facts of the circumstances of an injury at work, an injury that takes place at work is most likely a work-related, recordable injury. In other words: if you are not completely certain that an injury or illness is not work related, record it!

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Tags: lithium batteries, osha, workplace safety