Learning to perform CPR and use an AED and learning First Aid techniques can be fun, common, and certainly not foreign to any workplace safety program. It is shown being done (and done incorrectly) on our favorite TV shows and movies. Everyone knows what CPR and First Aid is, even if they have no idea of how to do it. Most companies have some kind of training where employees learn how to do this obvious stuff. Many states and local governments have regulations that require CPR/AED and First Aid training as well. Bloodborne Pathogens Training and certification is also extremely important, and required in the workplace. It’s not fun, exciting, or ever shown on TV, but what we don’t know about bloodborne pathogens is exactly what can and does kill us.
What most employers and safety managers don’t realize, is that nationally, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) requires training yearly, on how to be safe around blood and other potentially infectious materials (BOPIM). Yes, yearly, joyous training, for those who have a reasonable expectation to come into contact with BOPIM. While firefighters, police, EMTs and Paramedics and other hospital career employees seem the most fitted for this training, CPR/AED and First Aid responders also fall into OSHAs category of those that may become exposed to BOPIM. Think about it, if you are a first responder, you are expected to help out in a medical emergency, and subsequently making yourself susceptible to coming into contact with the patient’s bodily fluids.
OSHA’s goal is to educate people that may be exposed in their workplace so that they know how to be safe, minimize risks, and properly seek treatment if and when they are exposed to BOPIM.
Why? Here are some statistics.
Deaths in the United States caused by Bloodborne Pathogens:
- Hep B – 5,000 people will die each year from hepatitis B and it’s complications.
- Hep C – 8,000 to 10,000 yearly deaths from liver damage caused by hepatitis C.
- HIV – 14,000 to 16,000 people die each year from HIV, which cases AIDS.
Fortunately, the incidents of infection for hepatitis B and C had steadily declined over the past decade and a half. Clearly, infection rates are far below what they were in the early to mid 1990’s.
Unfortunately, the transmission rates for HIV has been steady over the past several years and has not decreased. About 50,000 people are infected with HIV every single year. The overwhelming number of these infections occur during sexual contact and do not occur from a workplace exposure. This certainly does however, increase the number of source individuals who may pass the infection on to others in workplace settings.
While proper yearly Bloodborne Pathogens training and certification for those who have reasonable expectation to come into contact with BOPIM is required by OSHA, the following are some steps that are included in the training:
- Use work practice controls – the method in which employees handle BOPIM, like NOT recapping needles and using broom and dustpans to pick up contaminated materials
- Use engineering controls – the way products are engineered to reduce potential exposure, like safe needles, sharps containers, and other safer medical devices.
- Always use personal protective clothing and equipment, like gloves and a face shield when performing CPR or first aid.
- Observe the laws that require employers to offer free HBV vaccinations at the workplace.
- Use signs, labels and bloodborne pathogens bags where needed.
- Proper self care when an exposure to BOPIM occurs.
With proper Bloodborne Pathogens training and the implementation of work practice and engineering controls in the workplace, transmission of these diseases can be greatly reduced, or even eliminated.