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Pallet C e nt ral • Janu a r y - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 26 45 Adele Abrams, Esq., ASP, CMSP, is Senior Counsel in the Washington, DC, office of Li ler Mendelson PC, where she is part of the firm's Occupa onal Safety and Health group and leads the na onal MSHA prac ce. Adele provides OSHA/MSHA case representa on, training, and consulta ve services on safety and employment law. She can be reached at safetylawyer@gmail.com or 301-613-7498. to do so, and should ideally privilege all draft reports and only release them with permission. While a team coordinator should be designated, a team may be needed for more serious responses. Regardless, a chain of command must be established to prevent confusion and delineate authority. Adequate backup must be provided and trained in case of a prolonged crisis. Response team members should be objective and not have a stake in the outcome. Avoid involving traumatized team members in the immediate response, where possible. Nonmandated records should never be released to OSHA or third parties without corporate or legal approval. Always require OSHA to request nonmandatory records in writing, but be aware that mandated records such as historical Forms 300/301, safety data sheets, or training records must be produced immediately upon request by an OSHA authorized representative. Post-incident, the company may opt to prepare a detailed, legally privileged root cause analysis report that has limited distribution to a key group of senior staff, and also a more general summary report that is available to team members. A public-facing report may also be required by OSHA in discovery or as part of a Rapid Response Investigation report following a severe injury report. ese public-facing reports should be reviewed by counsel before dissemination. It is important to ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to make the identified improvements relative to hazard mitigation, and that management demonstrates its commitment to continual improvement and making safety and health a core company value. Accidents may happen without notice, but proper planning can help prevent costly mistakes in responding to them. Pallet C e nt ral • Janu a r y - Fe b r u a r y 2 0 26 45

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