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   Mr. REID (for himself and Mrs. BOXER) proposed two amendments to the bill, H.R. 4577, supra; as follows:

   Amendment No. 3629

    At the appropriate place, insert the following:

   SENSE OF THE SENATE ON PREVENTION OF NEEDLESTICK INJURIES

    SEC.

   __. (a) FINDINGS.--The Senate finds that--

    (1) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that American health care workers report 600,000-800,000 needlestick and sharps injuries each year;

    (2) the occurrence of needlestick injuries is believed to be widely under-reported;

    (3) needlestick and sharps injuries result in at least 1,000 new cases of health care workers with HIV, hepatitis C or hepatitis B every year; and

    (4) more than 80 percent of needlestick injuries can be prevented through the use of safer devices.

   (5) OSHA's November 1999 Compliance Directive has helped clarify the duty of employers to use safer needle devices to protect their workers. However, millions of State and local government employees are not covered by OSHA's bloodborn pathogen standard and are not protected against the hazards of needlesticks.

    (b) SENSE OF THE SENATE.--It is the sense of the Senate that the Senate should pass legislation that would eliminate or minimize the significant risk of needlestick injury to health care workers.

   Amendment No. 3630

    On page 54, between lines 10 and 11, insert the following:

    SEC.

   __. (a) IN GENERAL.--There is appropriated $10,000,000 that may be used by the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to--

    (1) establish and maintain a national database on existing needleless systems and sharps with engineered sharps injury protections;

    (2) develop a set of evaluation criteria for use by employers, employees, and other persons when they are evaluating and selecting needleless systems and sharps with engineered sharps injury protections;

    (3) develop a model training curriculum to train employers, employees, and other persons on the process of evaluating needleless systems and sharps with engineered sharps injury protections and to the extent feasible to provide technical assistance to persons who request such assistance; and

    (4) establish a national system to collect comprehensive data on needlestick injuries to health care workers, including data on mechanisms to analyze and evaluate prevention interventions in relation to needlestick injury occurrence.

    (b) DEFINITIONS.--In this section:

    (1) EMPLOYER.--The term ``employer'' means each employer having an employee with occupational exposure to human blood or other material potentially containing bloodborne pathogens.

    (2) ENGINEERED SHARPS INJURY PROTECTIONS.--The term ``engineered sharps injury protections'' means--

    (A) a physical attribute built into a needle device used for withdrawing body fluids, accessing a vein or artery, or administering medications or other fluids, that effectively reduces the risk of an exposure incident by a mechanism such as barrier creation, blunting, encapsulation, withdrawal, retraction, destruction, or other effective mechanisms; or

    (B) a physical attribute built into any other type of needle device, or into a nonneedle sharp, which effectively reduces the risk of an exposure incident.

    (3) NEEDLELESS SYSTEM.--The term ``needleless system'' means a device that does not use needles for--

    (A) the withdrawal of body fluids after initial venous or arterial access is established;

    (B) the administration of medication or fluids; and

    (C) any other procedure involving the potential for an exposure incident.

    (4) SHARP.--The term ``sharp'' means any object used or encountered in a health care setting that can be reasonably anticipated to penetrate the skin or any other part of the body, and to result in an exposure incident, including, but not limited to, needle devices, scalpels, lancets, broken glass, broken capillary tubes, exposed ends of dental wires and dental knives, drills, and burs.

    (5) SHARPS INJURY.--The term ``sharps injury'' means any injury caused by a sharp, including cuts, abrasions, or needlesticks.

    (c) OFFSET.--Amounts made available under this Act for the travel, consulting, and printing services for the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education shall be reduced on a pro rata basis by $10,000,000.

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