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

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 cuts, punctures and injections causing increased risk of infection and/or immune reaction through poor handling practices of needles and scalpels when processing piglets, sows and hogs. Improper sharps handling practices included, but were not limited to, the conditions observed as follows: a)Seaboard Foods, LLC & Farm 45, on or about April 11, 2006, employees using 1.5" x 16 gauge needles in a pump syringe gun to inject sows behind the ear were observed repeatedly straightening the needle with their thumb. b)Seaboard Foods, LLC & Farm 37, on or about April 6, 2006, an employee was observed recapping multiple scalpel blades and placing them in the sharps container, thereby increasing the probability of injury when recapping was not necessary. c)Seaboard Foods, LLC & multiple farm sites, on or about April 6, 2006, employees carried exposed needle syringes from medicine room to and from individual rooms throughout the barns. Employees carried multiple needles, new and recapped, in overall pockets of uniform. Employees had not been instructed on safe sharps handling practices such as avoiding the recapping sharps. Among other methods, feasible and acceptable abatement methods to correct this hazard include the following: Implement satellite locations of sharps containers to make immediate disposal of used sharps more convenient for employee practice. Document the periodic evaluation of safe needle devices that may prevent recapping action. Develop, communicate and enforce standard operating procedures for safe sharps handling.s