We most often think of employee safety with regards to manufacturing, construction or other miscellaneous industries with related safety incidents.  But how often do we consider the professional athlete as an employee or the fan in a safety situation? 

Dave from TechLife recently sent me an article by Scott Miller of CBS Sports about the number of breaking wood bats in baseball.  This number is increasing each year, and it is becoming a safety issue for the players (employees) and the fans.  Sports are becoming much more harmful to the employee.  About a year ago a minor league coach (an employee) was hit in the head by a foul ball and died.  The NAICS for sports is 71100 and the recordable rate is 5.8 that is comparable to construction and manufacturing.  We know there is an alarming increase in the number of injuries is sports such as football and hockey, but should athletics and OSHA be concerned about the incident rate in the industry as a whole?

Fans are also “in harms way” when a hard line drive or a bat flies into the stands or a herd of 30,000 people all want to leave a game at one time.  Someone(s) often gets injured.  These injuries will not appear on an OSHA 300 log even though the injury occurred on-site, because the fan is not considered an employee.  What happens when a vistor to your company gets injured, do you record it if it qualifies and a recordable?

Sports today are a dangerous profession.  The employees receive much more medical attention than employees in other professions.  Most athletic teams provide a medical staff both on and off site.  How many of you have a doctor, nurse or trainer on-site?

So when you think of employee safety and health don’t forget to consider the professional and non-professional athletic as an employee too.