San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, October 23, 1998
Reynolds Holding, Chronicle Legal Affairs Writer

"Congress has finally recognized that needle sticks have become epidemic among our nation's health care workers," said Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, which represents hundreds of thousands of nurses and doctors. "This is the first step in what must be a total nationwide ban on dangerous and deadly needles."

The federal spending bill signed into law Wednesday urges the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies to "make reduction of accidental needle sticks a priority by . . . taking all necessary actions to address this serious public health problem."

The language in the bill was introduced by California Senator Barbara Boxer and endorsed by OSHA.

Earlier this year, The Chronicle published a series of articles that described how needle sticks had infected tens of thousands of nurses, doctors, lab technicians and public safety workers with HIV and hepatitis viruses over the past 10 years.

The stories reported that needles with safety features have existed for nearly a decade but that few are being used because of inadequate regulation and the higher cost of the devices.

In the new spending measure, Congress urges OSHA to require that hospitals and other medical facilities record all accidental needle sticks in logs mandated by the agency. As few as 10 percent of needle injuries are recorded now, according to studies, because the severity of the injuries -- and the infections they transmit -- may not be known for many months.

Congress also calls on the CDC and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to collect the numerous studies that have compared the performance of standard needles with that of safety needles.

Finally, the new law asks the CDC to include in its hospital manual a recommendation for the use of needles and syringes with devices that protect against needle injuries.

Although none of the measures is mandatory, the language "is another step in the right direction to protect the health and safety of medical workers and their families," said David Sandretti, a spokesman for Boxer.

Worker-safety advocates said they were pleased by Congress' action but disappointed that it did not go further.

"This is a small step," said Dr. June Fisher, a San Francisco occupational safety expert. "I would have liked to have seen appropriations for training of institutions and health care workers. But we welcome congressional attention."

Last month, California became the first state in the nation to require the use of safety needles as protection against needle sticks. Under the new law, the state Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board must issue final safety needle regulations by August 1 of next year. Health care employers must begin shifting to the safer devices on January 15.

Commenting on Congress' statements, John Duncan, director of the state Department of Industrial Relations, said, "There's obviously recognition that this issue is important, and they are finally paying attention to it nationally.

"But you look at California, and we've already done the heavy lifting on a number of these issues. I recommend that they duplicate what we're doing because a lot of this isn't that complicated."
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