Federal agencies are scrambling to protect the U.S. workforce from the coronavirus threat, with EPA announcing that its staff should be prepared to soon start teleworking to reduce exposure risks and OSHA detailing a range of voluntary steps companies can take to reduce employees’ risks depending on their potential exposure.
House Democrats are pushing legislation that would force OSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard to protect healthcare workers caring for patients suffering from coronavirus, noting there is no such mandatory federal policy and that Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidance to protect the workers is not binding.
Congress’ supplemental $7.8 billion funding bill to tackle the spread of the coronavirus includes $10 million for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to pursue worker-based training to prevent and reduce exposures to the virus of hospital employees, emergency first responders, and other workers at risk.
OSHA, EPA and other state and federal agencies are taking steps to protect healthcare and other workers against potential exposure from the deadly coronavirus, including OSHA’s suggestion that some existing standards might apply to preventing occupational exposure and EPA issuing guidance on using disinfectants to help limit the spread of diseases.
The National Academies of Sciences (NAS) is urging OSHA and other agencies to harmonize respiratory standards in healthcare to protect against future airborne disease outbreaks, but appears to sidestep the past debate between OSHA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on proper guidance for using certain reusable respirators.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is urging an appellate court to overturn a lower court ruling that partially denied its request for a broad subpoena for information related to an incident at an Exxon Mobil refinery, arguing the court abused its discretion in rejecting some subpoenas as “not relevant and material” to its inquiry.
A recently released NIOSH study indicates that health care workers continue to be exposed to hazardous “surgical smoke” -- a byproduct of thermal destruction of tissue during operations -- despite the existence of evidence-based practices and recommended controls available to protect them, the research agency said.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has started offering infectious disease prevention training to airport workers with help from a federal grant, as it voices concerns about lack of education and protective equipment for workers cleaning cabins, handling wheelchairs and performing similar duties. OSHA is working on a comprehensive infectious disease standard, but that would only apply to the health care sector (see related coverage).
Recent NIOSH research suggests that some isolation gowns do not meet the performance standards established by the American National Standards Institute and Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, highlighting a need to address standards, the agency reported.
Information gleaned from OSHA's increased enforcement attention to tuberculosis (TB) during inspections of inpatient health facilities can be used to bolster the agency's envisioned new rule designed to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, OSHA chief David Michaels tells Inside OSHA Online.