Solutions

The FDA Alert [1992] recommended that design features provide protection before, during, and after use, and after disposal.
—Jim Ramsay, Ph.D., M.A., Embry-Riddle University, Homeland Security

National Sharps Injury Prevention Plan

cdc logo Occupational exposures to bloodborne pathogens as a result of injuries from needles and other sharp objects are an important public health concern. It is estimated that hospital-based healthcare personnel sustain 385,000 sharps injuries annually in the United States. Numerous risk factors and prevention strategies have been identified and implemented in order to reduce sharps injuries in healthcare settings. One notable prevention milestone was the passage of the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act in 2001. In response to this Act, OSHA revised the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard, 29 CFR 1910.1030. The revised standard clarifies the need for employers to select safer needle devices and to involve frontline employees in identifying and choosing these devices. The updated Standard also requires employers to maintain a log of injuries from contaminated sharps.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) convened a National Sharps Injury Prevention Meeting on September 12, 2005, in Atlanta, Georgia. The purpose of this meeting was to review sharps injury prevention efforts (particularly since the passage of the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act in 2001); identify gaps in prevention efforts; and assist CDC in creating a national action plan for eliminating sharps injuries in the United States. Nearly forty representatives from federal and state agencies, healthcare professional associations, healthcare facilities, medical device manufacturers, and other key stakeholder groups participated in the meeting. The meeting was funded by the CDC Foundation through an unrestricted education grant from the Safety Institute, Premier Inc.

More Information (PDF)

The Horrific Truths Behind the Film "Puncture", Pt. I

By NEEDLESTICK SAFETY STAFF

“I don’t want you to show this product to my nurses…’cause they’ll want it, and they can’t have it.”
—Hospital Administrator in Puncture

Hollywood’s portrayal of the corporate underworld—where the thirst for profits all too often outweighs the welfare of the innocent—has finally broached medicine’s dirty little secret: the design of medical needles presents a very real hazard to your health.

According to the film Puncture, which is based on a true story, Big Med is led by a few giant corporations that control the lucrative manufacture and marketing of needles in America and around the world, and the leaders of these powerful monopolies will stop at nothing to keep the profits rolling in regardless of who is harmed in the process.

Puncture stars Chris Evans of Captain America fame as an attorney representing a nurse named Vicky (played by Vinessa Shaw) who died from HIV contracted through a needlestick accident. In fact, nurses and other healthcare workers are forced to use flawed medical devices every day, and thousands get stuck with contaminated needles each week due, not to poor practices on their part, but because the needles they are forced to use are inherently dangerous.

INFANTS & NEEDLES - DANGEROUS BLOOD DRAWS

This video shows the dangers of doing blood draws on infants and young children. The poor design of the butterfly-style blood drawing device creates situations where the sharp must be released in order to insert the sample tube, which could result in a needlestick to the heathcare worker.

NEEDLE MANUFACTURER'S DANGEROUS DEMO

This manufacturer's video shows the sharp being released several times during a butterfly device draw. This is a violation of both common sense and OSHA guidelines because of the danger of a needlestick to the healthcare worker, especially when performed on a squirming infant.