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Safety

Personal Protection Equipment

Wearing gloves, gowns, masks, and eye protection can
significantly reduce health risks for workers exposed to blood and other potentially infectious materials. The new OSHA standard covering bloodbome disease requires employers to provide appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and clothing free of charge to employees.Workers who have direct exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials on their jobs run the risk of contractingbloodbome infections from hepatitis B virus (HBV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes AIDS, and other pathogens. About 8,70O health care workers each year are infected with HBV, and 2OO die from the infection. Although the risk of contracting AIDS through occupational exposure is much lower, wearing proper personal protective equipment can greatly reduce potential exposure to all bloodbome infections.

SELECTING PPE

Personal protective clothing and equipment must be suitable.
This means the level of protection must fit the expected exposure. For example, gloves would be sufficient for a laboratory technician who is drawing blood, whereas a pathologist conducting an autopsy would need considerably more protective clothing. PPE may include gloves, gowns, laboratory coats, face shields or masks, eye protection, pocket masks, and other protective gear.The gear must be readily accessible to employees and available in appropriate sizes.If an employee is expected to have hand contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials or contaminated surfaces,
he or she must wear gloves. Single use gloves cannot be washed or decontaminated for reuse. Utility gloves may be decontaminated if they are not compromised. They should be replaced when they show signs of cracking, peeling, tearing,puncturing, or deteriorating. If employees are allergic to standard gloves, the employer must provide hypoallergenic gloves or similar altematives.Routine gloving is not required for phlebotomy in voluntary blood donation centers, though it is necessary for all other phlebotomies. In any case, gloves must be available in voluntary blood donation centers for employees who want to use them. Workers in voluntary blood donation centers must use gloves (1) when they have cuts, scratches or other breaks in their skin, (2) while they are in training; and (3) when they believe contamination might occur.Employees should wear eye and mouth protection such as goggles and masks, glasses with solid side shields, and masks or
chin-length face shields when splashes, sprays, splatters, or
droplets of potentially infectious materials pose a hazard through the eyes, nose or mouth.

U.S. Department of Labor
PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT FACTS
Occupational Safety and Health Administration

More extensive coverings such as gowns, aprons, surgical caps
and hoods, and shoe covers or boots are needed when gross
contamination is expected. This often occurs, for example, during orthopedic surgery or autopsies. Employers must provide the PPE and ensure that their workers wear it. This means that if a lab coat is required as a PPE, it must be supplied by the employer rather than the employee. The employer also must clean or launder clothing and equipment and repair or replace it as necessary. Additional protective measures such as using PPE in animal rooms and decontaminating PPE before laundering are essential in facilities that conduct research on HIV or HBV. There is one exception to the requirement for protective gear. An employee may choose, temporarily and briefly, under rare and extraordinary circumstances, to forego the equipment. It must be the employee's professional judgment that using the protective equipment would prevent the delivery of health care or public safety services or would pose an increased hazard to the safety of the worker or co-worker. When one of these excepted situations occurs, employers are to investigate and document the circumstances to determine if there are ways to avoid it in the future. For example, if a firefighter's resuscitation device is damaged, perhaps another type of device should be used or the device should be carried in a different mariner. Exceptions must be limited--this is not a blanket exemption.

DECONTAMINATING AND DISPOSING OF PPE

Employees must remove personal protective clothing and equipment before leaving the work area or when the PPE becomes contaminated. If a garment is penetrated, workers must remove it immediately or as soon as feasible. Used protective clothing and equipment must be placed in designated containers for storage, decontamination, or disposal.

OTHER PROTECTIVE PRACTICES

If an employee's skin or mucous membranes come into contact
with blood, he or she is to wash with soap and water and flush
eyes with water as soon as feasible. In addition, workers must
wash their hands immediately or as soon as feasible after removing protective equipment. If soap and water are not
immediately available, employers may provide other hand washing measures such as moist towelettes. Employees still must wash with soap and water as soon as possible.Employees must refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, applying cosmetics or lip balm, and handling contact lenses in areas where they may be exposed to blood or other potentially infectious materials.

This is one of a series of fact sheets that discusses various requirements of the Occupational Safety and health Administration’s standard covering exposure to bloodborne pathogens. Single copies of fact sheets are available from OSHA Publications, Room N-3101, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20210 and from OSHA regional offices. AGMD-F36.0103


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