Document 0107
 DOCN  M9580107
 TI    The role of organized labor in combating the hepatitis B and AIDS
       epidemics: the fight for an OSHA bloodborne pathogens standard.
 DT    9506
 AU    Muraskin WA
 SO    Int J Health Serv. 1995;25(1):129-52. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
       MED/95247348
 AB    The United States is experiencing a hepatitis B epidemic that has until
       recently received relatively little public attention. Many groups of
       workers are at risk of infection, death, or chronic carriership because
       of workplace exposure to blood; those at risk include not only health
       care professionals but police, fire fighters, life guards,
       hospital-based laundry and cafeteria workers, park rangers, sanitation
       workers, etc. One of the most important victories against the hepatitis
       B pandemic in the United States occurred when the Occupational Safety
       and Health Administration issued a Bloodborne Pathogens Standard that
       required employers to protect 5 1/2 million workers from infection by
       offering those at risk free hepatitis B vaccination, and forced
       employers to bear the costs of providing equipment (e.g., gloves, gowns,
       masks, puncture-proof containers) to maintain universal precautions for
       employees handling bodily fluids. While most people assume the new
       standard was primarily aimed at fighting the AIDS epidemic, it was
       actually based on the more significant risk posed by hepatitis B
       infection. The standard resulted not from leadership provided by the
       experts in the Public Health Service mandated to control infectious
       disease, but rather from pressure applied by labor unions--providing a
       clear example of the continued importance of unions for worker
       protection in our supposedly post-union era.
 DE    Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/*PREVENTION & CONTROL/  TRANSMISSION
       *Blood-Borne Pathogens  Communicable Disease Control  Disease
       Outbreaks/*PREVENTION & CONTROL  Hepatitis B/*PREVENTION &
       CONTROL/TRANSMISSION  Hepatitis B Vaccines/ADMINISTRATION & DOSAGE
       Human  Occupational Diseases/ETIOLOGY/*PREVENTION & CONTROL
       Occupational Exposure/ADVERSE EFFECTS  Risk Factors  United States
       *United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration  Universal
       Precautions  JOURNAL ARTICLE  REVIEW  REVIEW, TUTORIAL

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
       protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code).