Department
of Industrial Relations
M e m o r a n d u m
To : ALL STANDARDS
BOARD MEMBERS
Date :
June 26, 2001
From
: Division of Occupational
Safety and Health
John
Howard, Chief
Subject : Section 5193, Bloodborne
Pathogens
At
the June 21, 2001 Public Hearing, the Occupational Safety and Standards Board
considered revisions to California Code of Regulations, Title 8, General
Industry Safety Orders, Section 5193, Bloodborne Pathogens. The revisions to this standard are
substantially the same as the federal Bloodborne Pathogen standard.
Labor
Code Section 142.3(a)(3) exempts the Board from providing a comment period when
adopting a standard substantially the same as a federal standard. However, as indicated in the Notice and
Informative Digest, the Board still provided a comment period for the purpose
of identifying only issues related to the following three areas: 1) any clear
and compelling reasons for California to deviate from the federal standards; 2)
any issues unique to California related to this proposal which should be
addressed in this rulemaking and/or subsequent rulemaking; and, 3) solicit
comments on the proposed effective date.
As
a result of public comments, there were no changes made to the original
proposal.
SUMMARY OF WRITTEN AND ORAL
COMMENTS
No
written comments were received.
Teresa Pichay,
California Dental Association
Comment: Ms. Pichay stated that the federal OSHA requirement
for a sharps injury log excluded small employers whereas the Board proposal
continued to apply the sharps injury log requirement adopted in 1999 to all
employers, regardless of their size.
She noted for the record her understanding that the mandate contained in
the “Migden” bill (Labor Code Section 144.7) for the bloodborne pathogens
standard to include a requirement for a sharps injury log also did not provide
for an exception from this requirement for employers based on their size. Therefore, she stated that her comment about
the small employer exemption was for the purpose of establishing a record and
she realized that the Board could not entertain her comment due to the stricter
requirements of state law.
Response: The Board appreciates Ms. Pichay’s statement about small
businesses being exempt from sharps injury logs in the federal standard but not
in the Section 5193 and agrees with the commenter’s conclusion. The federal OSHA standard excludes employers
of less than 10 employees from the requirement to maintain a sharps injury
log. It does so by limiting its
application to only those employers required to maintain a log of occupational
illnesses and injuries under 29 CFR 1904.
The Board concurs with the commenter’s statements about Labor Code
Section 144.7 not providing any employers an exemption to the requirement for a
sharps injury log. Therefore, the Board
declines to make any change to the proposal in response to this comment and
shall retain in Section 5193 the requirement for a sharps injury log that
applies to all employers.
DETERMINATION
OF MANDATE
This
regulation does not impose a mandate on local agencies or school districts as
indicated in the Staff Development Memorandum.