What year did the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issue the bloodborne pathogens standard quizlet?

Nearly 10 years have passed since the Bloodborne Pathogen Standard was published. Since then, many different medical devices have been developed to reduce the risk of needlesticks and other sharps injuries. These devices were designed to replace sharps with non-needle devices or incorporate safety features designed to reduce injuries. Despite these advances in technology, needlesticks and other sharps injuries continue to be of concern due to their high frequency of occurrence and the severity of the health effects that they cause.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, has estimated that healthcare workers sustain nearly 600,000 percutaneous injuries annually involving contaminated sharps. In response to both the continued concern over such exposures and the technological developments that can increase employee protection, Congress passed the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act that directed OSHA to revise the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard. The Act directed OSHA to revise the Standard to require employers to both identify and make use of newer, more effective, and safer medical devices. That revision was published on January 18, 2001 and became effective on April 18, 2001.

The millions of workplaces covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act cannot be inspected at one time; therefore, priorities have been established for inspecting the worst situations first. The priority of workplace inspections is as follows:

Imminent danger situations receive top priority. An imminent danger is any condition in which there is reasonable certainty that a danger exists that can be expected to cause death or serious physical harm immediately or before the danger can be eliminated through normal enforcement procedures.

Page 259If an OSHA inspector finds an imminent danger situation, he or she will ask the employer to voluntarily remedy the situation so that employees are no longer exposed to the dangerous situation. If the employer fails to do this, an OSHA compliance officer may apply to the federal district court for an injunction to stop work until unsafe conditions are corrected.

Second priority goes to the investigation of fatalities and accidents resulting in a death or hospitalization of three or more employees. The employer must report such catastrophes to OSHA within 8 hours. OSHA investigates to determine the cause of these accidents and whether existing OSHA standards were violated.

Third priority goes to formal employee complaints of unsafe or unhealthful working conditions and to referrals from any source about a workplace hazard. The act gives each employee the right to request an OSHA inspection when the employee believes he or she is in imminent danger from a hazard or when he or she thinks that there is a violation of an OSHA standard that threatens physical harm. OSHA will maintain confidentiality, if requested, and will inform the employee of any action taken.

Fourth in priority are programmed inspections aimed at specific high-hazard industries, workplaces, occupations, health substances, or other industries identified in OSHA's current inspection procedures. OSHA selects industries for inspection on the basis of such factors as injury incidence rates, previous citation history, employee exposure to toxic substances, or random selection.

Last on the list of priorities for OSHA inspections are follow-up inspections. A follow-up inspection determines if the employer has corrected previously cited violations. If an employer has failed to abate a violation, the OSHA compliance officer informs the employer that he or she is subject to "Failure to Abate" alleged violations. This involves proposed additional daily penalties until the employer corrects the violation.

What is a requirement of the bloodborne pathogen standard quizlet?

Who established the bloodborne pathogen standards in 1991?

How did the Needlestick safety and Prevention Act affect the bloodborne pathogens standard quizlet?

In what year did US OSHA develop rules to protect healthcare workers from bloodborne diseases?