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Webinar on bloodborne pathogens by TRSA

14 Sep '12

2 min read

Textile Rental Services Association of America's (TRSA) upcoming webinar on September 26, will focus on a key concern among laundry operators: avoiding citations from OSHA for noncompliance with the agency's bloodborne pathogens standard.

Cited more frequently than any other rule in OSHA inspections of our industry's facilities, the standard remains a tricky target to hit as the agency steps up its scrutiny of precautions to minimize occupational exposure to potentially infectious materials.

Most recently, OSHA has beefed up the rule's enforcement among nursing and residential care facilities. While some targeted conditions in those facilities (such as spills of blood or other body fluids) don't apply to laundry, other enforcement priorities related to that sector could surface in assessments of our industry's facilities. For example, according to an analysis by the national Jackson-Lewis law firm, compliance officers are instructed to closely inspect:

• Written exposure control plans
• Engineering and work practice controls
• Personal protective equipment
• Hand washing
• Hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine
• Sharps injury logs

TRSA's webinar presenter will be Andrea Bessel, health and safety director for sister companies Atlas Health Care Linen Services (Syracuse, NY) and Alliance Laundry and Textile Services (Austell, GA). The webinar is free for TRSA members.

Textile Rental Services Association of America (TRSA)