Needlestick fight picks up momentum

The battle to stop needlestick injuries continues to gain momentum although the vast majority of health care workers are still unprotected. Some recent developments:

New OSHA rule
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has revised its blood-borne pathogen standards to provide more protection for health care workers.

The new rules require medical facilities to provide safe technology as part of their efforts to prevent infection. They also require that records be kept of needlesticks even if the victim only receives first aid for the injury.

These are important advances over the old standards, according to AFT health and safety coordinator Darryl Alexander. But she said it is not clear that OSHA can cite employers for violations unless employees have complained.

"We still need federal legislation that clearly mandates safe needle technology and that can be enforced before anyone is hurt," said Alexander.

Rep. Peter Stark (D-Calif.) has filed such legislation and currently has 151 co-sponsors. His bill is patterned after the new California law, which so far is the only strong state law to protect against needlesticks.

Alexander said union members can put teeth into the new OSHA standard by making sure they and other employees do report through their unions when they suffer needlestick injuries.

Unfortunately, federal OSHA rules do not cover public employees in 23 states, including Kansas, New Jersey and Wisconsin. Public employees are covered in the remaining 27 states, including California, Connecticut, New York and Oregon.

New push in New Jersey
As Healthwire went to press, supporters of a strong anti-needlestick law in New Jersey were racing the calendar to get their law passed and enacted before the end of the 1999 legislative session. If time ran out, they promised to come back next year, this time with assurances of support from Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

The campaign is led by Patients First, a coalition of health care unions and consumer groups in which the Health Professionals and Allied Employees/FNHP plays a leading role.

An anti-needlestick bill passed the New Jersey Legislature unanimously in 1999, but Gov. Whitman issued a "conditional veto," meaning that she signed it but changed it. The changes seriously weakened the bill.

Patients First and its legislative allies negotiated with the governor's office and came up with a compromise that goes a long way to restoring the original bill.

The governor wanted to let health practitioners decide unilaterally whether a safe needle device is appropriate for particular situations, case by case. For example, a doctor might decide that a safe needle wouldn't work well for a premature baby and decide to use an unshielded needle, endangering everyone else in the room and everyone who has to deal with the discarded needle.

Patients First pointed out that all safe needle devices on the market have been approved as safe and appropriate by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Under the compromise, a practitioner who doesn't want to use a safe needle must get a waiver. An unsafe device can be used in an emergency, but the practitioner must report the use and show good cause within five days.

American Federation of Teachers, AFL•CIO - 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20001