SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
International Safety Center, League City, TX, USA.
New Solut. 2021 May;31(1):16-19. doi: 10.1177/10482911211001483. Epub 2021 Mar 15.
As mass COVID-19 vaccination programs roll out across the country, we are potentially faced with compromising workers' health for the sake of the broader public health, as it relates to occupational exposure to contaminated needles and syringes. We have the opportunity to provide recommendations that advance protection of workers through the industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls, especially in light of the twentieth anniversary of the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act. Specifically, greater focus on institutional controls that can dictate the safety culture and climate of institutions that roll out COVID-19 vaccination programs, while maintaining careful focus on preventing sharps injuries and blood exposure. In addition, we provide suggestions for the role that engineering controls, such as devices with sharps injury prevention features play in protecting workers from exposure to bloodborne pathogens, as well as the importance of ongoing injury incident surveillance.
随着全国范围内大规模 COVID-19 疫苗接种计划的推出，我们可能需要在职业接触污染的针头和注射器的情况下，为了更广泛的公共卫生而牺牲工人的健康。我们有机会通过工业卫生控制层次结构提供建议，以保护工人，特别是考虑到《针刺安全和预防法》二十周年。具体来说，更注重机构控制，可以规定推出 COVID-19 疫苗接种计划的机构的安全文化和氛围，同时谨慎关注预防锐器伤害和血液暴露。此外，我们还为工程控制（例如具有锐器伤害预防功能的设备）在保护工人免受血源性病原体暴露方面所起的作用以及持续进行伤害事故监测的重要性提供了建议。
