I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1899
To require the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations to eliminate or
minimize the significant risk of needlestick injury to health care workers.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 20, 1999
Mr. STARK (for himself, Mrs. ROUKEMA, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California,
and Mr. ANDREWS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the
Committees on Commerce, and Ways and Means, for a period to be sub-
sequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of
such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations to
eliminate or minimize the significant risk of needlestick
injury to health care workers.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Health Care Worker
Needlestick Prevention Act’’.
SEC. 2. REQUIREMENTS.
(a) BLOODBORNE PATHOGENS STANDARD.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graph (2), the Secretary of Labor, acting through
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration,
shall amend the bloodborne pathogens standard to
require that—
(A) employers utilize needleless systems
and sharps with engineered sharps injury pro-
tections in their work sites to prevent the
spread of bloodborne pathogens; and
(B) to assist employers in meeting the re-
quirement of subparagraph (A), non-managerial
direct care health care workers of employers
participate in the identification and evaluation
of needleless systems and sharps with engi-
neered sharps injury protections.
(2) EXCEPTION.—The bloodborne pathogens
standard requirements of paragraph (1) shall apply
to any employer, except where the employer dem-
onstrates, to the Secretary’s satisfaction, that—
(A) there are circumstances in the employ-
er’s work facility in which the needleless sys-
tems and sharps with engineered sharps injury
protections do not promote employee safety,
interfere with patient safety, or interfere with
the success of a medical procedure; or
(B) the needleless systems and sharps with
engineered sharps injury protections required
are not commercially available to the employer.
(b) STANDARD CONTENT.—For carrying out the re-
quirement of subsection (a)(1) for needleless systems and
sharps with engineered sharps injury protections, the
amendment required by subsection (a) shall include the
following:
(1) EXPOSURE CONTROL PLAN.—The employer
shall include in their exposure control plan an effec-
tive procedure for identifying and selecting existing
needleless systems and sharps with engineered
sharps injury protections and other methods of pre-
venting bloodborne pathogens exposure.
(2) SHARPS INJURY LOG.—In addition to the
recording of all injuries from contaminated sharps
on the OSHA Occupational Injuries and Illnesses
200 log or its equivalent, the employer shall main-
tain a separate contaminated sharps injury log con-
taining the following information (to the extent such
information is known to the employer) with regard
to each exposure incident:
(A) Date and time of the exposure inci-
dent.