“The passage of this legislation is a testament to the support and dedication of our nation’s nurses, clinicians and other healthcare workers who have worked diligently toward this victory for years,” said BD President and CEO Edward J. Ludwig. “BD is delighted to join government, healthcare providers, industry, labor, regulators and thought leaders in the celebration of this long-awaited healthcare worker safety milestone, and we urge President Clinton to join Congress in making history.”

The Senate legislation was introduced by Senator James Jeffords (R-VT) and sponsored by Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Harry Reid (D-NV). Representative Cass Ballenger (R-NC) introduced the House of Representatives legislation.

The Senate and House bills update the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Bloodborne Pathogens Standard to require that employers make available for use sharps “with engineered sharps injury protection features” and “needleless systems” to reduce the risk to healthcare workers of occupational exposure to HIV, hepatitis C and other diseases. In addition, both bills require that healthcare workers responsible for direct patient care participate in the evaluation of these products and mandate that healthcare facilities update and review their Exposure Control Plans to reflect changes in technology, such as safety-engineered devices, and maintain a log of accidental needlestick occurrences.

Said Ludwig, “It is important to note that the legislation will protect healthcare workers without restricting the introduction of newly developed technologies from any manufacturer, and will safeguard industry’s ability to supply customers with quality, safety-engineered devices that deliver superior patient care.”

BD pioneered the development of safety-engineered products over 12 years ago and is today the leading supplier of safety-engineered medical devices. In July 2000, the Company launched the second wave of the BD Safety Compliance Initiative, a comprehensive education and training program to assist customers in complying with the new OSHA Compliance Directive.

“BD is 100 percent behind this legislation,” added Ludwig. “ It not only realizes a long-held dream of our Company, it also fulfills the hopes of hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers whose well being is essential to the well being of us all.”

BD is a medical technology company that manufactures and sells a broad range of supplies, devices, and systems for use by healthcare professionals, medical research institutions, industry and the general public. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 1999, BD reported total revenues of $3.4 billion.

For more information on health care worker safety, visit http://www.bd.com/safety.