Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle; Thursday, May 14, 1998
April Lynch, Chronicle Staff Writer
Reid, a Democrat, introduced a bill in the Senate on Friday that would require hospitals serving veterans and Medicare patients to use needles that better protect health care workers from needle stick injuries.
Reid's bill closely matches one introduced in the House by Representative Pete Stark, D-Hayward, last October. The bills, both dubbed the "Health Care Worker Protection Act," also call for $5 million for needle safety training.
"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American health care workers report more than 800,000 needles sticks . . . each year," Reid said in a statement. "(This bill) is designed to reduce the risks to health care workers from these accidents."
Reid's bill follows a series of Chronicle reports that found thousands of nurses, laboratory technicians and hospital housekeepers have died unnecessarily from needle injuries in the past 20 years.
The Chronicle series revealed that thousands of needle stick victims contract HIV, hepatitis C and other lethal infections every year -- even though needles with simple safety features that could prevent the injuries have been available for at least a decade. Few of the needles have reached health care workers, The Chronicle found, because it is more profitable for manufacturers to sell conventional designs and less costly for medical facilities to buy them.
Government watchdogs have nearly ignored the problem, according to the series, failing to enact or enforce regulations that would protect health care workers.
The Congressional bills are part of a growing political movement at the state and local level to require the use of safer needles.
In San Francisco, a proposed ordinance pending before the Board of Supervisors would require all medical facilities owned by or doing business with the city to use safe needle products.
The ordinance, sponsored by Supervisor Tom Ammiano, would affect scores of clinics, hospices and hospitals -- including San Francisco General -- as well as medical wards in city jails and schools.
California officials are also doing their own study of needle safety. Reid's bill is awaiting further action in the Senate Finance Committee. Stark's bill is pending before two House committees, Ways and Means and Veterans Affairs.
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