Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: BLOODBORNE

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a of place employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees wereexposed to the hazard of infectious disease: a) The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to infectious bloodborne diseases as follows: The re-use technicians were exposed to the hazards of splashing, splattering and aerosolization of dialysis patients' coagulated blood and blood products during cleaning of patient dialyzers using brushes, a water jet and physical shaking loose of coagulated blood and blood products. Feasible and useful abatement methods for reducing this hazard would be: 1) Enclosure of dialyzer cleaning operation inside of Class II laminar flow biological control cabinet; and 2) Use of personal protective equipment to protect the re-use technician from the contact and aersolization hazards.