[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 5]
[Revised as of July 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR1904.6]

[Page 48-49]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
CHAPTER XVII--OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT 
                                OF LABOR
 
Part 1904_Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses
--Table of Contents
 
          Subpart C_Recordkeeping Forms and Recording Criteria
 
Sec. 1904.6  Determination of new cases.

    (a) Basic requirement. You must consider an injury or illness to be 
a ``new case'' if:
    (1) The employee has not previously experienced a recorded injury or 
illness of the same type that affects the same part of the body, or
    (2) The employee previously experienced a recorded injury or illness 
of the same type that affected the same part of the body but had 
recovered completely (all signs and symptoms had disappeared) from the 
previous injury or illness and an event or exposure in the work 
environment caused the signs or symptoms to reappear.
    (b) Implementation. (1) When an employee experiences the signs or 
symptoms of a chronic work-related illness, do I need to consider each 
recurrence of signs or symptoms to be a new case? No, for occupational 
illnesses where the signs or symptoms may recur or continue in the 
absence of an exposure in the workplace, the case must only be recorded 
once. Examples may include occupational cancer, asbestosis, byssinosis 
and silicosis.
    (2) When an employee experiences the signs or symptoms of an injury 
or illness as a result of an event or exposure in the workplace, such as 
an episode of occupational asthma, must I treat the episode as a new 
case? Yes, because the episode or recurrence was caused by an event or 
exposure in the workplace, the incident must be treated as a new case.
    (3) May I rely on a physician or other licensed health care 
professional to determine whether a case is a new case or a recurrence 
of an old case? You are not required to seek the advice of a physician 
or other licensed health care professional. However, if you do seek such 
advice, you must follow the physician or other licensed health care 
professional's recommendation about whether the case is a new case or a 
recurrence. If you receive recommendations from two or more physicians 
or other

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licensed health care professionals, you must make a decision as to which 
recommendation is the most authoritative (best documented, best 
reasoned, or most authoritative), and record the case based upon that 
recommendation.