Frequently Asked Questions: Bloodborne Pathogens Standard (Part 1)
We get it, the Bloodborne Pathogen can be confusing. There are many frequently asked questions regarding it. Sometimes you are unsure if something affects you or your company directly and questions can arise that you need answers to.
There are roughly 80 frequently asked questions on OSHA’s website with answers. We will break each question down over a series of posts on our blog so that it helps with any confusion. Feel free to reference the complete standard here: https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=10051 as this document is not intended to be used as a substitute for the standard’s requirements.
This first section of FAQ’s covers the broad scope of the standard.
Q1. Who is covered by the standard?
A1. The standard applies to all employees who have occupational exposure to blood or other potentially infectious materials (OPIM). This will include:
- Occupational exposure is defined as reasonably anticipated skin, eye, mucous membrane, or parenteral contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials that may result from the performance of an employee’s duties.
- Blood is defined as human blood, human blood components, and products made from human blood.
- Other potentially infectious materials is defined as the following: saliva in dental procedures; semen; vaginal secretions; cerebrospinal, synovial, pleural, pericardial, peritoneal, and amniotic fluids; body fluids visibly contaminated with blood; along with all body fluids in situations where it is difficult or impossible to differentiate between body fluids; unfixed human tissues or organs (other than intact skin); HIV-containing cell or tissue cultures, organ cultures, and HIV- or HBV-containing culture media or other solutions; and blood, organs, or other tissues from experimental animals infected with HIV or HBV.
Q2. Does the Bloodborne Pathogens standard apply to employees in the agriculture, maritime and construction industries?
A2. The standard does not apply to agriculture or construction. The standard applies to ship repairing, shipbuilding and shipbreaking and on commercial fishing vessels and other vessels where OSHA has jurisdiction, but not in longshoring and marine terminals. However, the General Duty Clause (Section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act) will be used, where appropriate, to protect employees from bloodborne hazards in construction, longshoring, marine terminals and agriculture.
Q3. Are volunteers and students covered by the standard?
A3. Volunteers are not covered by the standard. Students are covered if they are compensated.
Q4. Are physicians who are not employees of the hospital in which they work covered by the standard?
A4. Physicians employed by professional corporations are considered employees of that corporation. The corporation which employs these physicians may be cited by OSHA for violations affecting those physicians. The hospital where the physician practices may also be held responsible as the employer who created or controlled the hazard. Physicians who are sole practitioners or partners are not considered employees under the OSH Act; therefore, they are not covered by the protections of the standard. However, if a physician not employed by a hospital were to create a hazard to which hospital employees were exposed, it would be consistent with current OSHA policy to cite the hospital, the employer of the exposed employees, for failure to provide the protections of the Bloodborne Pathogens standard.
Q5. My company supplies contract employees to healthcare facilities. What are my responsibilities under the Bloodborne Pathogens standard?
A5. OSHA considers personnel providers, who send their own employees to work at other facilities, to be employers whose employees may be exposed to hazards. Because your company maintains a continuing relationship with its employees, but another employer (your client) creates and controls the hazard, there is a shared responsibility for assuring that your employees are protected from workplace hazards. The client employer has the primary responsibility for such protection, but the “lessor employer” likewise has a responsibility under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. In the context of OSHA’s standard on Bloodborne Pathogens, 29 CFR 1910.1030, your company would be required, for example, to provide the general training outlined in the standard; ensure that employees are provided with the required vaccinations; and provide proper follow-up evaluations following an exposure incident. Your clients would be responsible, for example, for providing site-specific training and personal protective equipment, and would have the primary responsibility regarding the control of potential exposure conditions. The client, of course, may specify what qualifications are required for supplied personnel, including vaccination status. It is certainly in the interest of the lessor employer to ensure that all steps required under the standard have been taken by the client employer to ensure a safe and healthful workplace for the leased employees. Toward that end, your contracts with your clients should clearly describe the responsibilities of both parties in order to ensure that all requirements of the standard are met.
Q6. We have employees who are designated to render first aid. Are they covered by the standard?
A6. Yes. If employees are trained and designated as responsible for rendering first aid as part of their job duties, they are covered by the protections of the standard. However, OSHA will consider it a de minimis violation – a technical violation carrying no penalties – if employees, who administer first aid as a collateral duty to their routine work assignments, are not offered the pre-exposure hepatitis B vaccination, provided that a number of conditions are met. In these circumstances, no citations will be issued.
The de minimis classification for failure to offer hepatitis B vaccination in advance of exposure does not apply to personnel who provide first aid at a first-aid station, clinic, or dispensary, or to the healthcare, emergency response or public safety personnel expected to render first aid in the course of their work. The de minimis classification is limited to persons who render first aid only as a collateral duty, responding solely to injuries resulting from workplace incidents, generally at the location where the incident occurred. To merit the de minimis classification, the following conditions also must be met:
- Reporting procedures must be in place under the exposure control plan to ensure that all first-aid incidents involving the presence of blood or OPIM are reported to the employer before the end of the work shift during which the incident occurs.
- Reports of first-aid incidents must include the names of all first-aid providers who rendered assistance and a description of the circumstances of the accident, including date and time, as well as a determination of whether an exposure incident, as defined in the standard, has occurred.
- A report that lists all such first-aid incidents must be readily available to all employees and provided to OSHA upon request.
- First-aid providers must receive training under the Bloodborne Pathogens standard that covers the specifics of the reporting procedures.
- All first-aid providers who render assistance in any situation involving the presence of blood or other potentially infectious materials, regardless of whether or not a specific exposure occurs, must have the vaccine made available to them as soon as possible but in no event later than 24 hours after the exposure incident. If an exposure incident as defined in the standard has taken place, other post-exposure follow-up procedures must be initiated immediately, as per the requirements of the standard.
Q7. Are employees such as housekeepers, maintenance workers and janitors covered by the standard?
A7. Housekeeping workers in healthcare facilities may have occupational exposure, as defined by the standard. Individuals who perform housekeeping duties, particularly in patient care and laboratory areas, may perform tasks, such as cleaning blood spills and handling regulated wastes, which cause occupational exposure.
While OSHA does not generally consider all maintenance personnel and janitorial staff employed in non-healthcare facilities to have occupational exposure, it is the employer’s responsibility to determine which job classifications or specific tasks and procedures involve occupational exposure. For example, OSHA expects products such as discarded sanitary napkins to be discarded into waste containers which are lined in such a way as to prevent contact with the contents. At the same time, the employer must determine if employees can come into contact with blood during the normal handling of such products from initial pick-up through disposal in the outgoing trash. If OSHA determines, on a case-by-case basis, that sufficient evidence of reasonably anticipated exposure exists, the employer will be held responsible for providing the protections of 29 CFR 1910.1030 to the employees with occupational exposure.
Are you concerned that your facility does not have a kit designed for OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens Standard? This kit is designed to help in OSHA Standard Compliance (1910.1030) and combines personal protection and clean-up items mandated by OSHA, CDC, and State Health Departments to aid in the clean-up, transportation, and disposal of potentially infectious blood or body fluid spills.
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Disclaimer
The information contained is this document is not considered a substitute for any provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) or the requirements of 29 CFR 1910.1030, Occupational Exposure to Bloodborne Pathogens.