제  목 : OSHA SEEKS INFORMATION ON ADDITIONAL WAYS TO ELIMINATE
  일  자 : 1998년 09월
  제공처 : Internet

    OSHA SEEKS INFORMATION ON ADDITIONAL WAYS TO ELIMINATE
  OR GREATLY REDUCE NEEDLESTICK INJURIES
    ======================================================

  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is asking for
  information on additional ways to better protect health care workers from
  contaminated needles or other sharp objects.

  Such injuries can cause serious illness or death from bloodborne pathogens
  such as the hepatitis B virus, the human immunodeficiency virus, which
  causes Acquired Immunodefiency Syndrome (AIDS), and the hepatitis C virus.

  "Health care workers help us all get well and stay healthy. We want them to
   know we care about their personal health and safety, too," said Assistant
   Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Charles N. Jeffress.
   "We've received many suggestions for reducing injuries caused by needle-
   sticks. To determine the best strategies, we must begin by gathering
   information systematically to find out what measures are effective in the
   workplace."

  Hepatitis B infection among health care workers has been estimated to have
  sharply declined since OSHA promulgated its bloodborne pathogens standard
  on Dec. 6, 1991, from about 5,000 new infections in 1991 to 800 new
  infections in 1995. The incidence rate of hepatitis B infections among
  health care workers is now lower than the incidence rate for the general
  U.S. population.

  However, injuries from needlesticks and other sharp objectives continue to
  be of occupational health concern because of the frequency with which they
  occur and the severe health effects they can produce. An estimated 600,000
  such injuries occur annually in the workplace.

  While serious illness and possibly death can be a direct result of contract-
  ing a bloodborne disease, other effects can occur which less readily come
  to mind. In addition to the risk of disease transmission, workers may suffer
  from the side effects of drugs used to treat the diseases and from psycho-
  logical stress due to the threat of infection after an exposure occurs.

  In response to these problems, OSHA is seeking information on strategies
  that have been successfully implemented in the work environment for
  eliminating or minimizing contaminated sharps injuries, and particularly
  on the use of safer medical devices designed to limit the risk of such
  injuries. In using the term "safer medical device," the agency is referring
  to the wide variety of implements designed to reduce the risk of needlesticks
  and other sharps injuries through such measures as substitution (using
  another device in place of a needle such as a needle-free IV connector),
  modification of the device to reduce the hazard (as with a blunt suture
  needle), or incorporation of safety features (as with a retractable-needle
  syringe). All responses received will be carefully reviewed and will assist
  OSHA in determining effective approaches to reduce these injuries and what
  role the Agency may have in these approaches.

  Responses or comments should be postmarked on or before Dec. 8, 1998. They
  should be submitted in quadruplicate or one original (hard copy) an one
  diskette (5 1/4 or 3 ？ inch) in WordPerfect 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, 6.1, 8.0 or
  ASCII, to the Docket Officer, Docket No. H370A, Room N-2625, U.S. Department
  of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20210, telephone
  (202) 219-5046. Comments of 10 pages or more may be transmitted by fax to
  (202) 219-5046, provided the original and three copies are sent to the
  Docket Office later.

  Comments can also be submitted via electronic response to
  http://www.osha-slc.gov/html/needle-form.html .

  Notice of the request for information is published in the Wednesday, Sept.
  9, 1998, Federal Register. The text of the notice, and the hyperlink to
  submit electronic comments, can be found on the OSHA homepage at
  http://www.osha.gov. (Once on the homepage, click on "Federal Register;"
  click on "date of publication;" and finally, click on "1998.")