Guidance v. Blindness: Another Example
BNA's Daily Report for Executives is reporting on two OSHA standards interpretations just posted this month that address employer responsibilities for asbestos and bloodborne pathogens:
Peggy Teeling of Clifton Park, N.Y., asked OSHA what an employer's obligation is to an asbestos worker who quits and moves to another job. Teeling wanted to know if the employee is entitled to the "actual full report" of the examination conducted under the medical surveillance program for asbestos, or whether a clearance or summary report would be acceptable.
Enforcement Director Richard Fairfax replied that under OSHA's construction asbestos standards, the employer must provide a copy of the physician's written opinion within 30 days of its receipt.
In answer to Teeling's question on whether workers are entitled to a copy of their mask fit test when they leave the job, Fairfax said that under 29 CFR 1910.134, the written material must be made available on request to the affected employees for examination and copying. He also noted that employers are required to establish and retain written information about respirator fit testing.
Gary E. Thomas of Marietta, Ohio, asked OSHA whether an employer must provide another series of hepatitis vaccine shots if a worker's blood test shows there is no longer a detectable titer.
The OSHA standard requires that the employers make the hepatitis B vaccine and vaccination series available to all employees who have had an exposure incident as well as post-exposure follow-up.
Fairfax said, however, that neither a new series of shots nor a hepatitis B vaccination booster is currently required under the current U.S. Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines.
"The CDC has said that vaccine-induced antibodies to HBV decline gradually over time, and less than or equal to 60 percent of persons who initially respond to vaccination will lose detectable antibodies over 12 years," Fairfax said. "Studies among adults have demonstrated that, despite declining serum levels of antibody, vaccine-induced immunity continues to prevent clinical disease or detectable viremic HBV infection. Therefore, booster doses are not considered necessary."
This is the kind of valuable information that businesses and the public alike need to be able to rely on agencies to produce. The