Victory! Cal OSHA Adopts New Aerosol Transmissible Disease Standard

Cal OSHA Adopts New Aerosol Transmissible Disease Standard

On May 21, the California OSHA Standards Board adopted, by a 6 to 0 vote, the nation’s first
workplace standard designed to protect healthcare and other workers from aerosol (airborne and
droplet) transmitted diseases. The Aerosol Transmissible Disease Standard (ATD) was developed
to address the risks to health care workers and workers in other high-risk environments due to
exposure to aerosol transmissible pathogens, such as the agents which cause tuberculosis (TB),
measles, pertussis and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). It also covers pandemic
influenza including the H1N1 (swine) flu.
 
SEIU Nurses have led on this issue from the beginning, and were tireless advocates to see this
standard passed. Ingela Dalgren, RN, speaking on behalf of the SEIU Nurse Alliance of California
spoke in favor of the Standard. She told the Board of a recent incident at a hospital in which nurses
were told by a human resources manager to stop wearing respirators (for H1N1 flu) because it
scared the public.

Thanks to your hard work and the power of our collective voice, the standards will become effective
in a few months. We will be following up with SEIU nurse members throughout the state on how everyone can help enforce the new standards at your facility.

Read the CalOSHA Reporter article that details the testimony of SEIU Nurse Alliance of California Interim Director Ingela Dahlgren.
 CalOSHA Article

The details of the standard can also be found at the CalOSHA website at http://www.dir.ca.gov/oshsb/atd0.html.