Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, April 18, 2001
Reynolds Holding, Chronicle Staff Writer
Mandated by the Needle Stick Safety and Prevention Act of 2000, the regulations are expected to help save the lives of thousands of health professionals who each year contract HIV, hepatitis C and other lethal viruses from injuries involving contaminated needles.
The new rules require medical facilities to provide employees with syringes and blood-drawing devices that retract, blunt or cover needles after use. The safety features could eliminate up to 80 percent of the estimated 800,000 injuries that occur each year in the United States, studies show.
The rules also require employers to seek their workers' advice in selecting safer needles and to keep detailed logs on needle sticks so that researchers can determine ways for preventing future injuries.
Both provisions were a major victory for labor unions, which have argued that many hospitals buy the cheapest and least effective safety devices without consulting the employees who use them.
The federal measures were modeled on a California law enacted in 1998. The state law was prompted by a series of Chronicle stories that described how needle sticks had infected tens of thousands of nurses, doctors, lab technicians and public safety workers with HIV and hepatitis viruses since the 1980s.
The stories reported that needles with safety features had existed since at least 1988, but few were being used because of inadequate regulation and the higher cost of the devices.
Since California took action three years ago, 16 states have passed laws requiring safer needles in health care facilities.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it will spend 90 days on an "outreach and education effort" to train health care employers before enforcing the new regulations.
OSHA will have primary responsibility for enforcing the regulations, but officials stressed yesterday that the agency has been policing health care facilities under a 1999 agency directive allowing safety inspectors to penalize facilities for failing to use needle-safety devices. The new law essentially codifies that directive, an OSHA spokeswoman explained.
E-mail Reynolds Holding at rholding@sfchronicle.com.
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