Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act
What it Means for UFCW Members
A new law, The Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act (H.R. 5178), authorizes OSHA to revise the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard to require the use of safety-engineered sharp devices. OSHA published the revised standard on January 18, 2001; it took effect on April 18, 2001.
The Law
Requires employers to solicit input from non-managerial health care workers when identifying, evaluating and selecting safety-engineered sharp devices, and to document this process in their exposure control plan.
Requires management to evaluate and introduce safety-engineered sharp devices and needleless systems in order to reduce employees' occupational exposure to HIV, hepatitis C and other bloodborne diseases.
Requires that workplace exposure control plans document whether or not management considered using safer medical devices as a way of addressing occupational exposure to bloodborne diseases. Plans must be reviewed and updated at least annually.
Requires each health care facility to maintain a sharps injury log with detailed information on needlestick/ sharps injuries (including type and brand of device involved in the incident, department where exposure occurred and an explanation of how it occurred).
What's new about this law?
While OSHA has had the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard since 1991, the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act was voted on by Congress and requires that health care employers provide their employees with safe sharp devices. Many unions, including the UFCW, fought for this law for nearly a decade.
What can you do?
The new law does not recommend specific products. Instead, it requires workplaces to conduct their own evaluations of available safety devices. If you use needles or sharps at work, your input is needed to help select safer products. Health care facilities must evaluate and introduce appropriate safety devices, regardless of whether the products are covered by a group purchasing contract. Working with your Joint Labor-Management Safety & Health Committee, stewards and local union is the best way to become involved in this process.
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