The nation’s first standard to safeguard workers from the spread of airborne diseases has been approved by California’s Office of Administrative Law and has been filed with the Secretary of State. With full support from labor and management stakeholders, on May 21 the Cal/OSHA Standards Board unanimously approved the Aerosol Transmissible Disease (ATD) standard which is designed to protect workers in healthcare and related industries from the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis, measles, influenza, and other pathogens spread by coughing and sneezing. The standard becomes effective on August 5, 2009.
“This first in the nation standard is a milestone in workplace safety,” said Department of Industrial Relations Director, John C. Duncan. “It is designed to protect employees who are likely to come in contact with transmittable diseases which is especially significant due to recent events such as the H1N1 swine flu outbreak. I applaud the efforts of our Cal/OSHA program for once again being on the leading edge of worker safety.”
The new ATD standard will be added to the California Code of Regulations as Title 8, section 5199, and will cover healthcare and related workplaces that typically treat, diagnose, or house individuals who may be ill such as hospitals, clinics, nursing care facilities, correctional facilities, and homeless shelters. It will also cover emergency responders, who often are the first point of contact of the healthcare system with patients who can transmit disease.
Designed to protect workers with duties that increase their risk of exposure to infectious diseases, the ATD standard requires healthcare employers and others at increased risk to develop exposure control procedures and train employees to follow them. Employees must be made part of the process by involving them in the periodic review and assessment of these procedures. Basic exposure precautions such as source control, hand hygiene, and cleaning and decontamination procedures are a fundamental part of the standard.
Currently there are no specific requirements outlining the responsibilities for employers to address aerosol transmissible diseases as a workplace safety hazard for their employees.
“The ATD standard provides guidance on how to protect employees from exposure to diseases that are well known, like TB, and those that are novel, like what we have just experienced with the recent appearance of H1N1 flu,” said Cal/OSHA Chief Len Welsh. “This standard provides a set of safety practices and precautions tailored to the level of healthcare-related service provided by the employers covered, so they can respond in an organized and intelligent fashion to situations ranging from day-to-day management of a potentially infectious patient to emergency surges that may be brought on by a pandemic. The standard is designed not only to protect healthcare workers, but the functionality of the healthcare system itself, since the system cannot run without them.”
Also accompanying the ATD standard is the Zoonotic Disease standard, which addresses employees working around animals where many infectious diseases originate. The standard requires employers to control workplace exposures to infectious diseases in animals such as Hantavirus, monkey pox, anthrax, avian influenza, and bovine tuberculosis.
National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network
The Network is the result of collaboration with 17 local and state health departments; numerous centers and programs within CDC, including NCEH/ATSDR, NCBDDD, NCHS, NCCDPHP, and NCPHI; and four federal partners, including NASA, NCI, EPA, and USGS.
The Tracking Network is a Web-based tool that tracks and reports environmental hazards and the health problems that may be related to them. It allows scientists, health professionals, and members of the public to see where these hazards and health problems are occurring and how they are changing over time. The Tracking Network offers information for many environmental hazards and health conditions, such as asthma, cancer, and air and water contaminants.
Public Awareness Campaign Launched for Asbestos-Contaminated Vermiculite Insulation
EPA is launching a public awareness campaign to notify the public, including individuals whose jobs routinely put them in attic spaces, about the potential for vermiculite insulation to be contaminated with asbestos fibers.
NIOSH Revokes All Respirator Certificates of Approval Issued to Bei Bei Safety Company, Ltd.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has revoked the following certificates of approval issued to Bei Bei Safety Company, Ltd. (BBE):
- TC-84A-4390
- TC-84A-4391
- TC-84A-4392
- TC-84A-4520
- TC-84A-4525
- TC-84A-4560
- TC-84A-4562
As of July 1, 2009, no Bei Bei Safety Company Ltd. (BBE) respirator model can be listed as NIOSH approved.
Revocation also means that respirators bearing the numbers listed above can no longer be manufactured, assembled, sold, or distributed.
NIOSH has revoked these approvals in accordance with the authority granted in 42 CFR 84.43(c) which states, “The Institute reserves the right to revoke, for cause, any certificate of approval where it is found that the applicant’s quality control test methods, equipment, or records do not ensure effective quality control over the respirator for which approval was issued,” and the authority granted in 42 CFR Part 84.34 which states, “The Institute reserves the right to revoke, for cause, any certificate of approval issued pursuant to the provisions of this part. Such causes include, but are not limited to, misuse of approval labels and markings, misleading advertising, and failure to maintain or cause to be maintained the quality control requirements of the certificate of approval.”
NIOSH Public Meeting for the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory
NIOSH will hold a public meeting for the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory to be held on Thursday, September 17, 2009.
Topics to be discussed at the meeting are respirator standards development projects for:
- Supplied-Air Respirators (SAR)
- Air-Fed Ensembles
- Total Inward Leakage (TIL) Test for Respirators Other than Filtering Facepiece and Half Mask
The location of the meeting is the Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh International Airport, 1111 Airport Blvd, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15231. Registration will begin at 7:45 AM with the meeting starting at 8:30 AM. Interested parties should make hotel reservations directly with the hotel by calling 800-233-1234 before the room cut-off date of September 2, 2009. Mention the NIOSH room block to receive the special group rate.
This meeting will also be available via Live Meeting Conferencing. This service provides remote access capability for participants to listen in and view the presentations over the internet simultaneously. Remote participants will have the opportunity to ask questions during the open comment period. To register for Live Meeting Conferencing participation, please contact Charlene Jennings at 412-386-6736. This option will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, and is limited to 50 participants.
NIOSH Issues Construction Topic Pages on Engineering Controls for Silica Exposure
NIOSH has issued information concerning engineering controls for silica in construction. Guidance on using the following tools is now available:
Egg Safety Final Rule
The regulation requires preventive measures during the production of eggs in poultry houses and requires subsequent refrigeration during storage and transportation.
Infected individuals may suffer mild to severe gastrointestinal illness, short term or chronic arthritis, or even death. Implementing the preventive measures would reduce the number of Salmonella Enteritidis infections from eggs by nearly 60 percent.
The rule requires that measures designed to prevent Salmonella enteritidis be adopted by virtually all egg producers with 3,000 or more laying hens whose shell eggs are not processed with a treatment, such as pasteurization, to ensure their safety.
Work Zone Safety Clearinghouse Goes Multi-Lingual
The National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse has launched a multilingual section of its award-winning website () to provide road construction zone safety resources in Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Russian to supplement its extensive English language materials. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) asked the Clearinghouse to create the section in growing recognition that roadway work zone safety is a serious global public health issue and to provide valuable information to other countries as they initiate major programs to repair and modernize their transportation infrastructure systems to meet the demands of a 21st century economy.
“We are enthusiastic about this opportunity to provide international, multilingual resources in an effort to facilitate communication and learning with the ‘borderless’ Internet community, especially information that can save lives and promote work zone safety for users around the world,” says Brad Sant, American Road & Transportation Builders Association Transportation Development Foundation (ARTBA-TDF) Executive Director for Safety. The ARTBA-TDF manages the Clearinghouse facility, and the Texas Transportation Institute handles day-to-day operations.
The Clearinghouse is the world’s largest online information resource. Its databases include information related to laws, regulations, standards, guidelines, research publications, training resources, traffic and road closures, and links to useful websites. In the international section, resource titles have been made available in both English and the original language for ease of use. Translation links to the original documents are provided when available so that users who do not understand the language of the text may gain a basic understanding of posted materials.
Established in 1985 as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity to “promote research, education and public awareness,” the ARTBA-TDF supports an array of initiatives, including educational scholarships, awards, executive education seminars, roadway work zone safety and training programs, special economic reports, and a national exhibition on transportation.