Portable Sanitation Association International

118 2019 INDUSTRY RESOURCE DIRECTORY Safety and Health • Update the plan annually to reflect changes in tasks, procedures, and positions that affect occupational exposure, and also technological changes that eliminate or reduce occupational exposure. In addition, employers must annually document in the ECP that they have considered and begun using appropriate, commercially available effective safer devices (e.g., gloves, masks, face shields, waterproof clothing) designed to eliminate or minimize occupational exposure. Employers must also document that they have solicited input from frontline workers in identifying, evaluating, and selecting effective engineering and work practice controls. • Implement the use of universal precautions (treating all human blood and OPIM as if known to be infectious for bloodborne pathogens). This means using gloves, masks or face shields, and protective clothing if blood or OPIM exposure is anticipated. Use of engineering and work practice controls to limit exposure is also part of universal precautions. • Identify and use engineering controls. These are devices that isolate or remove the bloodborne pathogens hazard from the workplace. They include things like having tongs for removing sharps safely from the tank and disposal containers on the trucks. • Identify and ensure the use of work practice controls. These are practices that reduce the possibility of exposure by changing the way a task is performed, such as appropriate practices for handling and disposing of contaminated sharps, and cleaning contaminated surfaces and items. The controls will vary by portable sanitation company due to the variances in types of equipment, but your exposure control plan should cover the procedures you have put in place and trained employees to use to make the most of your equipment and use it in a manner that minimizes risk. • Provide personal protective equipment (PPE) for employees at risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens and OPIM. The PSAI standard for PPE includes—at a minimum—hard hats, waterproof gloves, eye protection (such as safety glasses or face shields), and waterproof boots with steel or composite toes. Some insurance companies also require waterproof clothing as well, and some job sites such as mines and power plants, have additional PPE requirements unrelated to bloodborne pathogens. Whatever PPE is required to protect your employees, it is your responsibility as the employer to clean, repair, and replace this equipment as needed. Provision, maintenance, repair and replacement must be at no cost to the worker. • Provide information and training to workers. Employers must ensure that their workers receive regular training that covers all elements of the standard, including, but not limited to: » Information on bloodborne pathogens and diseases. » Methods used to control occupational exposure. » Hepatitis B vaccine, medical evaluation, and post-exposure follow-up procedures. » Employers must offer this training on initial assignment to the position where the worker may be exposed, at least annually thereafter, and when new or modified tasks or procedures affect a worker's occupational exposure. Workers must have the opportunity to ask the trainer questions. Also, training must be presented at an educational level and in a language that workers understand. » Bloodborne pathogens training resources can usually be obtained through your local Red Cross or you can contract with commercial vendors to supply it for you. • Make available hepatitis B vaccinations to all workers with occupational exposure. This vaccination must be offered after the worker has received the required bloodborne pathogens training and within 10 days of initial assignment to a job with occupational exposure. • Make available post-exposure evaluation and follow-up to any occupationally exposed worker who experiences an exposure incident. An exposure incident is a specific eye, mouth, other mucous membrane, non- intact skin, or parenteral contact with blood or OPIM. This evaluation and follow-up must be at no cost to the worker and includes documenting the route(s) of exposure and the circumstances. Of course there's always more to learn. For additional information, go to OSHA's Bloodborne Pathogens and Needlestick Prevention Safety and Health Topics website at www.osha.gov/SLTC/bloodbornepathogens/. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also has some good resources at www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/bbp/. More questions? Let the PSAI know and we'll research it for you. Better worksites. Better weekends. Better world. EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS-ONLY CONTENT REDACTED Join us now at www.psai.org for access to this valuable information.

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