OSHA Proposes Tuberculosis Standard
To Protect Workers, Save Money
RiskWorld News Brief
Protecting workers in public settings from the new drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis and saving medical treatment and lost production costs of $89 million to $116 million are the goals of a recently proposed Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard.
The proposal would require employers to develop a written exposure control plan and identify and isolate individuals with suspected or confirmed infectious TB or transfer them to facilities with isolation capabilities. It would also require the installation of engineering controls in some facilities, such as negative pressure isolation rooms or areas that would reduce or eliminate exposures to employees. Other provisions in the proposed standard include tuberculin skin testing, hazard communication and training, and recordkeeping.
The use of respirators approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) would also be required for at-risk employees.
More than five million workers in approximately 100,000 establishments (hospitals, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, drug treatment facilities, etc.) would be covered by this standard, as well as workers involved in social, welfare, teaching, law enforcement, legal, emergency medical, and home health care services.
However, employers where the risk of TB infection is low would be subject to fewer requirements.
Annual costs for implementing the standard are estimated to be $245 million, or about $2,400 per establishment.
In developing the proposed standard, OSHA staff have visited affected industries, met with stakeholders and sought peer review of the risk assessment. The proposal was published in the October 17, 1997, Federal Register, and is available on the Internet (see related links following this article).
Public comment periods and public
hearings are scheduled with hearings to begin in
Washington, D.C., on Feb. 3, 1998, in the auditorium of
the Department of Labor (Frances Perkins Building), 200
Constitution Avenue, NW, and subsequently additional
public hearings will be held at other locations. Comments
on the proposed standard, notices of intent to appear at
hearings, testimony, and documentary evidence should be
submitted in quadruplicate to the Docket Officer, Docket
No. H-371, Room N-2625, U.S. Department of Labor, 200
Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20210. Comments
of 10 pages or less may be transmitted by fax to (202)
219-5046.
Related Links
"Highlights of OSHA's Proposed Tuberculosis Standard" from U.S. Department of Labor news release (copy provided in RiskWorld)
U.S. Department of Labor news release of Thursday, October 16, 1997, "OSHA Proposes TB Standard To Protect 5.3 Million Workers" and "Highlights of OSHA's Proposed Tuberculosis Standard" (http://www.osha.gov/media/oshnews/oct97/osha97366.html)
Proposed tuberculosis standard published in the Federal Register, October 17, 1997, Volume 62, Number 201, pages 54159-54308, in three segments:
Note: The PDF (Portable Document Format) version is a page-by-page match of a printed document. To view and print a document in PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 software installed on your computer. This software is available for downloading at no charge at http://www.adobe.com/acrobat/readstep.html.
Story posted November 1, 1997.
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Copyright © 1997 by Tec-Com Inc.