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OSHA can now enforce annual TB fit-testing

Infection Control Monitor, January 11, 2008

It's official now: President Bush has signed into law an OSHA budget that no longer includes a prohibition on annual tuberculosis (TB) fit-testing enforcement.

OSHA inspectors are now free to check that hospital workers who face exposure to TB on the job receive annual fit-testing for respirator use under the respiratory protection standard. Hospitals had anticipated the lifting of this ban for months, but budget deliberations delayed it.

The prohibition first showed up in 2004, when Congress barred OSHA from using government funds to enforce annual fit-testing provisions for TB.

To read more about OSHA's budget, go to http://thomas.loc.gov and search for "H.R.2764" as a bill number.

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