House nixes annual fit-test exemption
OSHA Healthcare Connection, July 24, 2007
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It appears that years of fit-testing violation immunity for healthcare facilities will end with the next fiscal year.
On July 19, the House of Representatives passed the 2008 appropriations bill for the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Education without the amendment that prohibits OSHA from citing employers for not conducting annual fit-testing for employees wearing respirators to protect from TB hazards.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) has consistently opposed annual fit-testing because it is labor-intensive, expensive, and "of unproven benefit for preventing exposure to TB," according the AHA's News Now, July 11.
Meanwhile, organized labor and associations representing occupational safety professionals have supported the requirement. The fit-test prohibitions "would put workers at an unnecessary risk of contracting tuberculosis, which is of heightened concern given the resurgence of this disease," said the American Industrial Hygiene Association on July 19.
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