May 26, 2006
BCNU president will demand tough new rules to protect workers from deadly sharps injuries at WorkSafeBC hearing
BCNU president Debra McPherson says WorkSafeBC's proposal for reducing needlestick and other medical sharps injuries doesn't go far enough to protect workers from exposure to infectious blood and body fluids

BCNU president Debra McPherson will be demanding tough new rules to protect workers from deadly sharps injuries when she speaks out today at the last of WorkSafeBC's public hearings into its proposed new sharps regulation. The event takes place at the Metropolitan Hotel, 645 Howe Street, Vancouver BC, between 3PM and 5PM.

BCNU president Debra McPherson applauds WorkSafeBC's (formerly WCB) decision to finally introduce the new regulation. "But," she adds, "repeated attempts to highlight the ineffectiveness of the agency's proposed regulation have fallen on deaf ears. The proposal simply doesn't go far enough to protect health care workers from preventable injuries. For example, it covers less than 30 per cent of medical sharps now being used by BC nurses. And it won't come into effect until 2008, leaving the potential for 10,000 needless injuries."

Each year some 6,800 BC health care workers are injured and sometimes infected by blood-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B and C. Those injuries cost BC taxpayers $13.6 million annually for testing and treatment. Studies show BC could save $8 million annually by introducing the appropriate regulations.

Other problems with WorkSafeBC's proposal, says McPherson, include the failure to involve nurses in the selection process, no mechanism to track future injuries and no guarantee employers will choose the best and safest devices.

McPherson says other jurisdictions, such as Saskatchewan and Manitoba, have recently passed regulations that cover the use of all sharps. Also, after the US government and 24 states implemented legislation requiring safety sharps in 2001, needlestick injuries there plummeted by 51 per cent.

The province-wide WorkSafeBC public hearings have already taken place in Kelowna, Prince George and Nanaimo. Frontline nurses spoke out publicly at each event, calling for tougher regulations to reduce the number of injuries. Also, more than 3,650 RNs took the time to sign petitions calling on the government to support BCNU's proposal. BCNU has also produced a 13-minute video on the subject and placed ads at bus shelters in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island. You can view the video and bus shelter ad, as well as other related information at www.bcnu.org and clicking on Sharps Regulations.

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