What actions led to OSHAs bloodborne pathogens standard and the Needletick Safety and Prevention Act?
In September 1986, AFSCME was the first organization to request that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issue a regulation to protect workers from exposure to AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases. OSHA issued the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard (29 CFR 1910.1030) in 1991 to prevent needlesticks and other exposures to blood and other body fluids that contain blood at work. Thousands of workers’ lives have been save since 1991 because of changes in equipment, work practices, and providing the hepatitis B vaccine. AFSCME also played a leading role in passage of the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act of 2000 to make OSHA’s Standard stronger. Hundreds of thousands of health care workers are stuck by needles or other sharps each year even though safer needles and other devices have been available for years. The law strengthened the requirement to use safer needles and other devices to prevent exposure. It also required that non-managerial frontline health care workers h
