Under OSHA's bloodborne pathogen standard, employers are required to evaluate the effectiveness of safety needle devices at their facilities. However, OSHA officials say it is difficult for them to enforce this provision of the standard because it is written in performance-oriented language. OSHA is currently considering changes to the compliance directive for bloodborne pathogens that would strengthen the enforcement of this provision. While safety needles are up to three times as expensive as conventional needles, safety experts say they could prevent 75 percent of the current needlestick incidents. That money, she said, would better be spent on preventive engineering controls.
Latex gloves offer dependable and inexpensive protection.
Large institutions may use millions of pairs of latex gloves in a year. Some 8 to 12 percent of health care workers, however, react positively to blood tests for latex allergy. A smaller set of workers show allergic reaction symptoms, such as hives or asthma, in the presence of latex proteins. For a small number of individuals, exposure to latex can be fatal. Factors such as a history of allergies, asthma or skin rashes seem to indicate a higher risk to develop latex allergy.