Copyright 2000 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
The San
Francisco Chronicle
NOVEMBER 30, 2000, THURSDAY, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A16
LENGTH: 787 words
HEADLINE:
FDA Urged to Ban Unsafe Needles Now;
Union says new law will take too
long to stop 'epidemic' of infections
SOURCE: Chronicle
Staff Writer
BYLINE: William Carlsen
BODY:
Stepping up its campaign against dangerous
needle injuries, the nation's largest health care workers union called on the
Food and Drug Administration yesterday to immediately ban blood-drawing devices
that lack safety mechanisms.
The Service Employees International Union,
joined by Ralph Nader's Public Citizen advocacy group, petitioned the FDA to
remove from the market the "most dangerous" type of needles -- blood collection
sets, infusion needles and intravenous catheters.
"The people who work
day and night to provide quality health care for all of us shouldn't have to
worry that a preventable needle stick will become a death
sentence," SEIU president Andrew Stern said.
As many as 600,000 medical
and public safety workers sustain accidental needle injuries every year, and
thousands have contracted hepatitis, AIDS and other diseases from contaminated
needles. Over the last decade, syringes and blood-collection devices have been
designed with retractable needles, self-blunting tips and other safety features
that prevent accidental injuries. Yesterday's petition comes only four weeks
after President Clinton signed a law that will gradually force most health care
facilities across the country to switch to the safer needles.
But SEIU
claimed yesterday that the process outlined in the federal legislation is too
slow because it allows for a lengthy evaluation of the safety needles by
hospitals after the new law goes into effect next summer.
It will also
require, the union said, "workplace-by-workplace" enforcement by inspectors from
the understaffed Occupation of Safety and Health Administration.
"Cutting off an epidemic of needle-borne infections at the source is the
only effective public health strategy," said Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of
Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "The FDA is the only entity that can
immediately remove these unsafe devices."
The union said the petition
mainly targets blood-drawing needles, glass capillary tubes and intravenous
catheters because they have proved to be the most dangerous devices.
A
spokesperson for the FDA said yesterday that the federal agency had just
received the petition and plans to review it carefully, but at this time has no
comment.
Stern noted that his union had petitioned the FDA to ban unsafe
needles nearly 10 years ago.
"We were told then to wait, to allow for
development of safer technology," he said. "In the past 10 years, hundreds of
safety devices have been created but thousands of health care workers have been
infected as a result of needle sticks."
"It is now time for the FDA to
act."
In 1998, The Chronicle published a series of stories reporting on
the needle stick epidemic and the government's lack of regulatory action to
address the problem.
The series reported that FDA officials held a
closed-door meeting with executives of Becton Dickinson, the nation's largest
needle manufacturer, during which the company lobbied against such a ban, saying
that market forces would solve the problem.
In 1998, California became
the first state to pass a needle safety law, which became a model for the
federal bill signed Nov. 6 by Clinton.
The federal bill requires most of
the nation's health care facilities to evaluate safe needle technology and then
shift from conventional devices to the safety needles. It made OSHA responsible
for enforcing the new regulation.
Yesterday, Camilla Jenkins,
spokesperson for Becton Dickinson, praised the legislation, which the company
had strongly supported.
"OSHA is the federal agency with responsibility
for worker safety in this country," she said. "We expect the market to move
quickly to provide (safety needles) now that there is a new federal law."
She declined to comment on yesterday's FDA petition because the company
has not yet reviewed it.
But Jenkins said that Becton Dickinson is
supplying safety needles throughout the country, especially in California.
"Becton Dickinson has ample capacity to supply the market and meet the
demand," she said.
Noreen Prill, a former nurse, was present at the
press conference yesterday when the FDA petition was announced. She contracted
hepatitis C 25 years ago when a kidney dialysis patient moved unexpectedly and
she jabbed herself accidentally with a blood-drawing needle.
"I've had
to leave nursing," said the 53-year-old Prill, describing how the disease and
interferon treatments have robbed her of the energy to continue working.
"The needle device that injured me is still on the market 25 years
later," she said. "It's not right, and it's not necessary. This petition is
great because it can stop that."E-mail William Carlsen at
wcarlsen@sfchronicle.com.
LOAD-DATE: March 20, 2001
