Copyright 2000 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
The San
Francisco Chronicle
NOVEMBER 7, 2000, TUESDAY, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 855 words
HEADLINE:
Clinton Signs Bill for Safer Needles;
Law will help protect health care
workers from HIV, other viruses
BYLINE: Reynolds
Holding, William Carlsen, Chronicle Staff Writers
BODY:
The decades-long battle for federal protections against deadly
needle sticks culminated in victory yesterday when President
Clinton signed legislation requiring medical facilities across the nation to use
safer syringes and blood-drawing devices.
The Needle
Stick Safety and Prevention Act is expected to help save the lives of
thousands of nurses, doctors and other health care workers who each year
contract HIV, hepatitis C and other potentially lethal viruses from injuries
involving contaminated needles.
Noting that the act drew bipartisan
support, Clinton said it "makes clearer" the duty of employers to protect
employees and pushes manufacturers to "increase the number of safer devices" on
the market.
"It's amazing that a dream to protect health care workers
came true today at the Oval Office," said Andrew Stern, president of the Service
Employees International Union, which has campaigned for
needle-stick prevention laws since the 1980s. "There are
moments when democracy works, and the people are heard." Modeled on a 1998
California statute sponsored by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco,
the federal law requires health care 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 needle injuries that occur each year in the United States, studies show.
The laws were 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.
The act signed yesterday
requires that workers who care for patients be directly involved in selecting
the safety needles used in the workplace. The provision was 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.
But the American Hospital Association said yesterday that it also was
happy to see the provision in the new law.
"You need to have the people
who actually use the devices involved in the process," said Rick Wade, senior
vice president of the association.
Wade also praised the law for
accommodating technology as it may develop in the future rather than specifying
which devices health care facilities must use.
Regulations in the law
require employers to keep detailed logs of when needle injuries occur and how
they happen so that researchers can determine ways to prevent future incidents.
The secretary of labor now has up to six months to publish the new
regulations in the Federal Register. They will take effect 90 days after
publication.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration
will have primary responsibility for enforcing the new law, but the agency
stressed yesterday that it is already policing health care facilities under a
1999 agency directive that allows safety inspectors to penalize facilities for
failing to use needle-safety devices. The new law essentially codifies that
directive, an OSHA spokeswoman explained.
In August, OSHA chief Charles
Jeffress said the agency had identified about 2,600 hospitals and nursing homes
with high levels of needle injuries and would inspect approximately one-third of
them for compliance with the safer-needles guidelines. He said the inspectors
would be looking to see whether the facilities had "reviewed what devices they
are using and what devices are on the market. . . . Our goal is to reduce the
number (of injuries), not to issue penalties and citations."
An OSHA
spokeswoman said yesterday the agency would continue that approach.
Clinton's signing of the new law caps a series of recent state and
federal moves to deal with a needle-stick epidemic that threatens the health and
safety of 8 million nurses, doctors and other medical and public safety workers
around the nation.
Since California took action in 1998, 16 states have
passed laws requiring safer needles in health care facilities.
One year
ago, 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, an average of
30 potentially fatal needle injuries occur each year in hospitals. 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.
But Congressman
Pete Stark, D-Fremont, a sponsor of the new law, warned yesterday that "our job
is not done."
"Because of intricacies in federal law, this bill will not
protect health care workers in every public hospital. We must still work
together to accomplish that goal."
E-mail Reynolds Holding at
rholding@sfchronicle.com and William Carlsen at wcarlsen@sfchronicle.com.
LOAD-DATE: November 7, 2000