December 14, 2001—The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a new compliance directive on November 28, 2001, for enforcing the bloodborne pathogens standard that was revised in January 2001. The standard, called the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, became effective on April 18, 2001. The new compliance directive guides OSHA’s safety and health inspection officers in enforcing the standard that covers occupational exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials, and ensures consistent inspection procedures are followed.
The directive highlights the major new requirements of the standard, including:
- Evaluation and implementation of safer needle devices as part of the re-evaluation of appropriate engineering controls during an employer’s annual exposure control plan;
- Documentation of the involvement of non-managerial, front-line employees in choosing safer devices; and
- Establishment and maintenance of a sharps injury log for recording injuries from contaminated sharps.
Compliance officers are reminded that no one medical device is safer for all situations; employers must consider and implement devices that are appropriate, commercially available, and effective. Also included in the directive are engineering control evaluation forms, a Web site resource list, and a model exposure control plan which incorporates the most current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) regarding management of occupational exposure to the hepatitis B and C viruses and the HIV virus. The directive can be accessed from OSHA.
