The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Labour and Immigration Minister Nancy Allan last week proposed legislative changes to the Workplace Safety and Health Act which would improve protection for Manitoba health care workers. "Needle-stick injuries pose a significant risk to health care workers from blood-borne diseases," said Allan. "These proposals will ensure employers in the health care sector implement procedures and require the use of safety-engineered needles to reduce the potential for injuries to their workers." Under the proposed amendments, employers would be required to ensure that: workers use safety-designed needles such as retractable or safety-shielded devices to prevent injuries, safe-work procedures and practices in the use of safety-engineered needles are implemented, procedures are established to address worker injuries from needle sticks, needle-stick injuries are investigated and reported, and if the use of safety-engineered needles is not reasonably practical, employers implement safe-work procedures and practices to deal with the risk. The majority of the 3,000 needle-stick injuries occurring annually in Manitoba take place in workplaces in the health care sector where the traditional hollow-bore needles are used to withdraw fluid samples or inject medications. A number of blood-borne diseases that may be transferred during these incidents include the viruses causing HIV and hepatitis B and C.3/21/2005
