The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is doing one last review of a proposed rule by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that would add safeguard measures for employees against infectious disease risks like SARS, COVID-19, measles, tuberculosis, MRSA, and varicella disease.
Just like HIPAA, OSHA looks after the welfare of healthcare workers. The new OSHA criteria will cover healthcare and other work-related settings where workers encounter a greater risk of contact with infectious diseases such as nursing facilities, homeless shelters, drug treatment services, coroners’ offices, correctional facilities, mortuaries, emergency response services, and labs that deal with products that might be an origin of pathogens.
The new guideline is long overdue. OSHA released its preliminary Request for Information in May 2010, reviewed responses the same year, and organized stakeholder events in July 2011, then the proposed rule was delayed until 2014 when SBREFA was started and concluded.
OSHA is analyzing regulatory options for control measures to safeguard employees against exposures to pathogens that can result in infectious disease, thus OSHA created a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NMPR) which is currently being reviewed.
OSHA might publish the NMPR before the inauguration of President Trump, but it is uncertain if the present administration will push through with the new safety and health rules to safeguard against infectious diseases or will rather shelve or discard the proposed rule.
A few OSHA standards and programs are directly related to safeguarding employees against the spread of infectious agents including:
The Bloodborne Pathogens standard (29 CFR 1910.1030) protects employees from being exposed to blood and body fluids that could have bloodborne infectious agents
The Personal Protective Equipment standard (29 CFR 1910.132), and Respiratory Protection standard (29 CFR 1910.134) consider the safety of employees when at risk of droplet, contact, and airborne infectious agents
The TB compliance directive safeguards employees against exposure to TB through observance of current pertinent OSHA rules and the General Duty Clause of the OSHA Act.