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

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: 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: Employees including but not limited to staff nurses and respiratory therapists were exposed to the hazard of being infected with Tuberculosis through repeated prolonged indoor contact with patients who may be infected with tuberculosis in that: a. SECOND FLOOR MEDICAL UNIT, RECOVERY ROOM AREAS AND THE MORGUE: Rooms designated as pulmonary isolation rooms or where M. Tuberculosis could be aerosolized were not equipped with ventilation systems capable of a maintaining negative pressure to the surrounding areas. Feasible and useful abatement methods for reducing this hazard, as recommended by the C.D.C. among others include but are not limited to the following: 1. MEDICAL SCREEN: A. All employees in the facilities covered must be offered the Mantoux skin test free of charge and at a time and place convenient to the employee. All test procedures shall be conducted in accordance with standard medical practice. Frequency of testing shall be as follows: - At time of employment, unless there is a previous positive test or documented completion of adequate preventive therapy. - Every six (6) months for workers with frequent exposure to patients with TB or are involved with high hazard procedures. - Annual testing for other workers. - After a TB exposure; that is, if a worker has been exposed to a potentially infectious TB patient for whom infection control procedures have not been taken. This will not be required when an employee's last skin test was within the previous three (3) months. If negative, the skin test shall be repeated twelve (12) weeks after exposure. 2. WORK REMOVAL When an employee is found to have current pulmonary or laryngeal TB, they shall be excluded from work until adequate treatment is instituted, their cough is resolved and sputum is free of bacilli on three consecutive smears. 3. RESPIRATORY ISOLATION All covered facilities providing health care services to confirmed, infectious TB patients must keep these patients in pulmonary isolation rooms. 4. TRANSPORT OF TB PATIENTS Whenever an infectious TB patient is to be transported, the patient shall be evaluated to determine if it is medically feasible for the patient to be fitted with an appropriate respirator. If it is feasible, the employee transporting the patient shall ask the person to wear one during the transport. The employee exposed during the transporting of a patient shall wear a particulate respirator of properly fitted surgical mask.