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Spring 1999

Safe Needles

Every day health care workers face the threat of unnecessary dangers from needlesticks though needles are available with built-in safety protections. These needles are a little more expensive than standard needles, and employers are dragging their feet about making a change. But momentum seems to be on the side of health care workers.

In the last session of Congress, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) introduced language in the federal spending bill calling on all federal agencies to make “reduction of accidental needlesticks a priority by taking all necessary actions to address this serious public health problem.” The bill urges OSHA to require that hospitals and other medical facilities record all accidental needlesticks and calls on OSHA and NIOSH to collect all studies that have compared the performance of standard needles with that of safety needles.

The fight has also gone to the states. California is the first state to require the use of safety needles. On Jan. 15, 1999, employers began shifting to the safer devices. Tennessee has passed safe needle legislation. Legislation also is/has/will be considered in the following states: Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

One shining light has come out of this battle of safety versus profits. With health care providers across the country moaning that they can’t afford to spend the extra pennies for safe needles, the highly unionized Kaiser Permanente organization came to a different conclusion. Even before the legislation in California became effective, they announced that they couldn’t afford not to switch — that their employees were too valuable to be put at risk. AFSCME affiliate United Nurses Associations of California represents 5,000 Kaiser nurses in Southern California.

National Action for Safe Needles

AFSCME and the United Nurses of America are working closely with Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) who is drafting legislation aimed at reducing needlestick injuries in the health care workplace. This legislation will require that health care facilities establish a workplace committee to evaluate and select for use needles and sharps designed to reduce injury.

American health care workers face serious danger from infectious diseases transmitted to them by needlesticks and sharps injuries on the job. Safer medical devices — that significantly reduce the danger to health care workers — have been developed. The following facts show that the risks are too great to ignore.

• At least 20 different disease-causing pathogens are transmitted by needlesticks. Among them are HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. (New York State Department of Health, 1992)

• Accidental needlesticks account for 86 percent of all cases of occupational infectious disease. (OSHA)

• More than 800,000 occupational needlesticks are reported every year. But up to 66 percent of occupational needlesticks are not reported. (OSHA)

• About 2 percent (16,000 needlesticks) are likely to be contaminated with the AIDS virus, HIV. (OSHA)

• For every 270 contaminated needlestick injuries (risk rate 0.36 percent), one health care worker is expected to contract HIV/AIDS. (CDC)

• Fifty-two health care workers were infected with HIV on the job in 1996. (CDC)

• More than a million Americans are infected with Hepatitis B. A single needlestick exposure to Hepatitis B carries a transmission rate as high as 30 percent. (NIH)

• There are approximately 4 million Americans who carry the Hepatitis C virus. There is no vaccine to protect health care workers against Hepatitis C. (CDC)

Ergonomics

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is considering the adoption of ergonomics standards. Ergonomics is the science of designing equipment to reduce operator fatigue, discomfort and injury — developing equipment that fits the job and the worker.

Women workers are disproportionately affected by ergonomic injuries. Women make up 46 percent of the workforce and 33 percent of those injured at work. Yet they account for 63 percent of repetitive motion injuries — like carpal tunnel syndrome — according to the AFL-CIO’s Department of Occupational Safety and Health. In addition, more than 180,000 women workers each year suffer an injury due to overexertion. Nearly half of all female workers’ injuries and illnesses result from ergonomic hazards.

Statistics for 1995 show the five jobs with the highest number of nonfatal injuries and illnesses requiring time off from work for women are:

• nursing aides, orderlies, attendants;
• registered nurses;
• cashiers;
• assemblers; and
• maids and housemen.

Out of 1,275,000 women employed as RNs, 26,077 suffered such an injury/illness; women nurses have a 1-in-49 chance of sustaining such an injury/illness. Male nurses have a 1-in-75 chance of sustaining such an injury/illness.

A 1998 National Academy of Science study concludes that musculoskeletal disorders in workers are caused by exposure to ergonomic hazards at work. In fact, the study says, “for most people, their main exposure to ergonomic hazards is at the workplace.”

OSHA needs to hear from nurses about the importance of safe workplaces. Thousands of nurses each year suffer pain and loss of income because of injuries that could be prevented with the implementation of ergonomic standards.

For more information, contact AFSCME’s Department of Research and Collective Bargaining Services at (202) 429-1228.