Copyright 2000 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
The San
Francisco Chronicle
OCTOBER 27, 2000, FRIDAY, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 914 words
HEADLINE:
Needle-Stick Bill Passes Senate, Heads for Signature;
A victory for
nation's health care workers
BYLINE: William Carlsen,
Reynolds Holding, Chronicle Staff Writers
BODY:
The
U.S. Senate unanimously approved new workplace regulations yesterday that will
dramatically lower the number of potentially lethal needle sticks that injure
hundreds of thousands of health care workers each year.
The bill, called
the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, was approved by the
House of Representatives last month and now goes to President Clinton, who is
expected to sign it.
The legislation will require health care facilities
nationwide to provide their employees with syringes and blood-drawing devices
incorporating safety features that retract, blunt or cover the needles after
they are used.
The safety features can reduce accidental needle injuries
by up to 80 percent, sharply curtailing transmissions of deadly viruses and
diseases like HIV and hepatitis, studies show. "This bill goes a long way to
ensure that health care workers won't get stuck with needles, which can lead to
months of anxiety and a possible death sentence," said Andrew Stern, president
of the Service Employees International Union, one of the organizations that led
the campaign to pass the bill.
Stern called it tragic that some of the
health care workers who years ago began the crusade for safer needles, like San
Francisco nurse Peggy Ferro, died of needle-transmitted disease before they
could witness the bill's passage.
MODELED AFTER STATE LAW
The
federal legislation is modeled on California's needle safety law, which was
introduced by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, and signed by
then-Gov. Pete Wilson in 1998. Since then, 16 other states have passed similar
laws.
The California law was prompted by a series of Chronicle articles
reporting that tens of thousands of health care workers like Ferro had
contracted HIV and hepatitis from needle sticks over the prior decade.
The series reported that an array of safety designs capable of reducing
the number of needle injuries has been available for many years, but
manufacturers were reluctant to produce the safety needles, and hospitals balked
at the higher costs.
MAJOR VICTORY FOR UNIONS
Yesterday's
legislation requires that health care workers involved in patient care be
directly involved in the selection of the safety needles to be used in their
workplaces. The provision was a major victory for the unions, which have argued
that many hospitals are buying the cheapest and least effective safety devices
without consulting the employees who are required to use them.
Under the
new regulations, employers will also be required to keep detailed logs on needle
injuries and their causes to help determine how best to prevent future injuries.
After the legislation is signed by the president, the secretary of labor
will have up to six months to publish the new regulations in the Federal
Register. The new regulations will take effect 90 days after publication.
The Senate bill was co-sponsored by Sens. James Jeffords, R-Vt.; Mike
Enzi, R-Wyo.; Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; and Harry Reid, D-Nev.; who guided it
through the last-minute budget battle now raging between Clinton and the
Senate's Republican leadership.
The bipartisan effort nearly collapsed a
month ago when Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., put a hold on the bill, a move that
could have blocked its passage.
Bunning said he was acting on behalf of
a Lexington, Ky., company, MedPro Inc., that makes needle destruction devices.
The company claimed that the legislation put it at a disadvantage in the
marketplace because the regulations favored safety needles over disposal
devices.
Two weeks ago, Bunning dropped his opposition after the U.S.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration sent him a letter stating that
needle destruction devices continue to reduce the risk of needle injuries.
The legislative action yesterday follows a series of moves by federal
agencies over the past year to finally come to grips with an epidemic of needle
sticks that threatens the health and safety of 8 million nurses, doctors and
other medical and public safety workers around the nation.
In November
1999, OSHA ordered its workplace inspectors to begin citing hospitals that have
not started the switch to safe needles. The agency will also launch this year a
training program to teach inspectors what to look for with the complicated,
fast-changing needle technology.
Also in November 1999, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta issued a strongly worded safety alert
to the nation's hospitals, warning of the serious dangers of accidental needle
sticks.
The alert noted that for every 100 beds in a hospital there are
an average of 30 potentially lethal needle injuries per year. Up to 80 percent
of the injuries can be eliminated through the use of needles and syringes with
built-in safety features, the CDC said.
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SYRINGE WITH RETRACTABLE NEEDLE
With an extra push on the
plunger, the needle retracts into the syringe
Needle retracts into
barrel of syringe
Health care workers currently use 6 billion needles
each year in the United States -- most of them conventional needles without
safety features to prevent accidental needle stick injuries. Legislation passed
yesterday by the Senate will require medical facilities to provide health care
workers with safety needles like the model above.
E-mail William
Carlsen at wcarlsen@sfchronicle.com and Reynolds Holding at
rholding@sfchronicle.com.
GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC, Chronicle
Graphic
LOAD-DATE: October 27, 2000
