House Passes Legislation Protecting
Health Care Workers from Needlestick Injuries

October 3, 2000

I am pleased to speak in support of HR 5178, The Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act and urge all of my colleagues to join me in voting to protect nurses, doctors, and other health care workers from accidental needlestick injuries in the workplace.

This legislation is long overdue. Health care workers across our country are put in danger each and every day because safe needle technologies that exist and are proven to reduce the risk of workplace needlestick injuries are still not widely used in our nation’s health facilities.

Through accidental needlesticks, health care workers are exposed to the spread of deadly bloodborne diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis B and C. Estimates are that some 600,000 to one million needlesticks occur each year. While the vast majority of those injuries do not result in the spread of a bloodborne pathogen, those that do can prove debilitating and even fatal. Health care workers simply should not be forced to risk their lives while trying to save ours.

Enactment of HR 5178 will dramatically lower the occurrence of accidental needlestick injuries by requiring the use of safer needle technology in our nation’s health care system. This bill, like the legislation I co-authored with Rep. Roukema (HR 1899), will dramatically improve needlestick protections for health care workers by:

• clarifying the bloodborne pathogens requirements regarding the use of safer needle devices,
• improving existing reporting requirements, and
• ensuring that health care workers are involved in the selection of appropriate safety devices.

I have been working on this issue for many years. My first bill to protect health care workers from preventable needlestick injuries was introduced in 1993. In the last Congress, similar legislation gained the support of more than 100 of my colleagues. HR 1899, which Rep. Roukema and I introduced together in this Congress, now has the bipartisan support of more than 185 of our colleagues.

States have also begun focussing attention on this important issue. My home state of California was the first state to pass comprehensive legislation requiring the use of safe needle devices in 1998. Since then, more than a dozen states have followed course and passed legislation protecting health care workers within their own borders.

But, this is a national problem that deserves a national solution. That is why I am so pleased to join Rep. Ballenger and Rep. Owens in support of HR 5178 on the House floor today. I would also like to congratulate both of them for stepping into leadership roles on this vitally important safety issue for health care workers across the country.

While I fully support the bill before us today, our work to protect health care workers from these injuries will not be complete even with passage of this important legislation. We need to go further. OSHA applies mainly to the private sector and therefore HR 5178 leaves health care workers in public hospitals in approximately 27 states without the same protections. We need to extend equivalent protections to these workers and I pledge to work with my colleagues to achieve this goal as well.

Passage of HR 5178 will take us a long way toward minimizing the danger of needlestick injuries and potential infection by deadly diseases for the millions of health care workers across our country. Put simply, a yes vote for HR 5178 will save lives. I urge all of my colleagues to join me in voting yes.