San Francisco Chronicle (SF) - The Voice of the West, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94119; - WEDNESDAY January 17, 1990 Edition: FINAL Section: NEWS Page: A17 Word Count: 374
David Tuller, Chronicle Science Writer

She urged a panel of federal job safety officials to approve stringent rules to protect workers from AIDS, hepatitis and other infectious diseases.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which issued proposed guidelines last spring and has been holding hearings on them in San Francisco since last week, is expected to reach a decision on permanent standards later this year. Many health care facilities oppose mandatory standards, saying they would be too costly to implement.

Although Jane Doe became infected more than two years ago, the case received widespread publicity last spring because of difficulties she faced in receiving workman's compensation while keeping her identity confidential. In yesterday's video testimony, with her face heavily shadowed, Doe described how she pricked her finger with an infected needle while removing an intravenous medication set-up.

She also discounted suggestions that health care workers could prevent accidents simply by being more careful.

That "puts the onus and it puts blame on health care workers, in a situation where our workload generally increases without any supports," she said. "We can follow all the rules that are laid down for us but a needle is a needle and accidents happen. We need to be protected from the needles."

The proposed OSHA standards are similar to guidelines promulgated by the Centers for Disease Control in 1987. They recommend such steps as providing gloves and other protective gear for workers who handle blood and other infectious agents, conducting extensive training and educational efforts, and offering free hepatitis B vaccines and AIDS testing in some cases.

To date, there have been about two dozen documented cases of U.S. health care workers contracting HIV on the job. But pressure on OSHA to implement strong mandatory standards could increase because of recent reports that the numbers could be greatly underreported.

Heilig, who testified last week, said that it could cost hospitals hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring them into compliance if OSHA adopts the standards. He said, for example, that OSHA estimates that gowns cost 36 cents apiece. Many California hospitals are paying as much as $1.50.

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