Take note: Fit-testing rules are changing
Emergency Management Alert, July 16, 2007
Three years of violation immunity for healthcare facilities when it comes to tuberculosis fit-testing will end with the next fiscal year.
The 2008 appropriations bill for the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Education passed out House Appropriations Committee without the amendment that prohibits OSHA from citing employers for not conducting annul fit testing for employees wearing respirators to protect from TB hazards.
The committee failed to approve the prohibition amendment by a 27-38 vote, reported the American Hospital Association (AHA) News Now on July 11. AHA has consistently supported the annual fit-testing exemption because it is labor-intensive, expensive, and "of unproven benefit for preventing exposure to TB," according to the article.
Annual fit-testing for tight-fitting respirators has long been a requirement of OSHA's respiratory protection standard. The recent OSHA recommendations for protection against pandemic and avian influenza referenced the need for fit-testing in compliance with the standard. Now the same will apply for respirators worn to prevent TB exposure.
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