Copyright 2000 Journal Sentinel Inc.
Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel
October 8, 2000 Sunday EARLY EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 08A
LENGTH: 352 words
HEADLINE:
Curb on needle danger is approved by House;
Measure aims to reduce health
care worker injuries
BYLINE: San Francisco Chronicle
BODY:
Washington -- The House of Representatives
has passed sweeping new regulations to protect the nation's 8 million health
care workers from potentially deadly needle injuries.
The new
regulations require the nation's hospitals and other health care employers to
provide their workers with needles and syringes that include "built-in safety
features."
Accidental needle sticks, which injure up to
800,000 workers a year, can transmit HIV, hepatitis and other lethal pathogens.
The federal legislation follows similar regulations that went into effect last
year in California. The California rules served as a model for the federal law
and for similar bills passed in 16 other states.
The federal needle law,
in addition to covering health care providers nationwide, requires that medical
workers directly responsible for patient care be brought into the process of
selecting the safe needle devices they will be asked to use.
An
identical bill has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. James Jeffords, a
retiring Vermont Republican, but the outlook there is much murkier. The bill was
never subjected to hearings and has not yet won committee approval. Now, as
Congress aims at a mid-October adjournment, there may not be enough time for the
Senate to vote on the bill.
If the Senate passes the bill without
changes, it will go to President Clinton, who is prepared to sign the
legislation.
"The administration believes enactment of this bill will .
. . make it clearer to employers that they have a responsibility to use
commercially available safer medical devices that can lessen the risk of
injuries from contaminated sharps," the White House said in a written statement
after passage of the House bill.
The legislation has the support of
health care worker unions, nurses associations, the American Hospital
Association and needle manufacturers.
"This will save lives, and it will
save money," said Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.). He said that California's law
will save health care providers millions of dollars a year by eliminating
testing and treatment costs for injured medical workers.
LOAD-DATE: October 8, 2000 
